Seat belt crackdown to target teens
during Memorial Day week

The largest nationwide seat belt enforcement effort ever will kick-off just before Memorial Day weekend as more than 11,000 law enforcement agencies in all 50 states conduct child passenger safety, seat belt and drunk driving checkpoints and other special enforcement activities as part of the Operation ABC Mobilization. The enforcement effort will place special emphasis on protecting teens and young adults this Memorial Day week as new data show more than half of all teens who die in crashes are completely unrestrained.

According to the new data from NHTSA's Fatal Analysis Reporting Systems (FARS), 4,437 teens, ages 16 to 19, died and thousands more were injured in traffic crashes in 2000. Fatality rates for teens are twice that of older drivers and the risk of crashes for teens are four times that of older drivers. Approximately 8,000 Americans - adults and children - will die in crashes simply because they failed to buckle their seat belts.

The Operation ABC Mobilization is conducted twice yearly by the Air Bag and Seat Belt Safety Campaign of the National Safety Council in conjunction with law enforcement agencies, NHTSA, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

Low seat belt use puts teens, young adults, at risk

• In 2000, 4,437 teens ages 16-19, died in traffic crashes
• The risk of crash involvement per mile driven among 16-19 year-olds is four times than that of older drivers.
• While young drivers between 15 and 20 years old, account for just 6.8 percent of licensed drivers (12.7 million), they represent 14 percent of all drivers involved in fatal crashes and 17 percent (1,885,000) of police reported crashes.
• In 1999, 63 percent of youth (age 15-20) who died in passenger vehicle crashes were not wearing safety belts.