Safer driving is more than just buckling up in the event of a crash

As part of the national “Click It or Ticket” campaign each May to encourage car drivers and passengers to buckle up, DC and Prince George’s County police are out stopping drivers and ticketing them for not using a seat belt, as reported by Bob Barnard of Fox 5:

Unlike some elements of the StreetSmart campaign, “Click It or Ticket” does not focus on encouraging safer driving behavior to reduce crashes; instead the goal is for drivers and their passengers to protect themselves in the event of a crash by using a seat belt. While this campaign is generally a positive one, there were some quotes in the news piece that betray its auto-centricity. “You can’t protect yourself all the time against drunk drivers [or] speeding drivers,” MPD Assistant Chief Pat Burke told Fox 5, “but if you are a victim in a crash your best defense is wearing a seat belt.” This is true unless, of course, you are a pedestrian or cyclist without the benefit of 3,000 pounds of steel and a safety harness.

The news report also noted that, like crosswalk stings, this enforcement action had benefits beyond seat belts: one man stopped for not wearing a seat belt was wanted on a felony theft warrant and arrested at the scene. The police also caught many drivers talking on cell phones, including one woman who was shocked that she got busted for breaking the law: “I’m a mother on the way to pick her son up at day care,” Kent Kolb said, as if that should somehow excuse her distracted driving. “And I cannot believe that I’m getting a ticket. I’m getting a ticket?”