Motorists urged to buckle up over Thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving weekend ? 6 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 25, to 6 a.m., Monday, Nov. 30 ? is the busiest time of the year for American motorists, according to law enforcement agencies.

Unfortunately, more motorists on the roads increase the likelihood of traffic accidents. Wearing a seat belt is the single most effective way to prevent injury or death in an accident. The risk of a fatal injury is reduced by 45 percent when seat belts are worn in a passenger truck and 60 percent when worn in a light truck, according to studies.

During the 2013 Thanksgiving weekend (the last year in which information is available), there were 301 people nationwide who lost their lives on roadways (two in Iowa), in which a staggering 58 percent were not wearing seat belts.

Preliminary numbers indicate that there were three fatalities in Iowa during the same period in 2014.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), approximately 12,584 lives were saved by seat belts in 2013, and an additional 2,800 more could have been saved if everyone had worn seat belts.

Iowa has one of the highest seat belt compliance rates in the nation at 92.96 percent but the unbuckled 7.04 percent represents 46 percent of the fatalities. The Iowa Department of Public Safety (DPS) Iowa Governor?s Traffic Safety Bureau (GTSB) Chief Patrick Hoye stated, ?This is really troubling, almost half of the passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes were not wearing their seat belts; we see way too many preventable fatalities in crashes.?

Henry County Sheriff Rich McNamee and the Mt. Pleasant Police Department, along with other law enforcement agencies and the DPS and GTSB, remind motorists that if they are traveling near or far to take a moment to simply buckle the seat belt.