COLLEGE STATION – A cowboy on horseback is the traditional image of a Texan.
These days cowboys and thousands of other residents of the state are more likely to use horsepower instead of horses. Pickups are now many Texans’ transportation of choice, said Bev Kellner of Texas Cooperative Extension’s Passenger Safety program. Officials from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration say one of every four vehicles in Texas is a pickup.
“Pickups, the long-standing vehicle of choice for farmers and ranchers, have become popular with people of all ages in urban settings too,” said Georgia S. Chakiris, the safety administration’s regional administrator, in a press release.
In the old days, being thrown from a horse could be serious, but nowadays being thrown from a pickup in a crash is more likely to be fatal, Kellner said.
She cited some information from agencies:
– According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, pickup drivers and passengers in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico face higher odds of dying in a pickup crash than in other parts of the country.
– Texas Transportation Institute figures show about two-thirds of these fatal pickup crashes happen in rural areas.
– Crash records from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show 699 Texas pickup drivers and passengers died in crashes in 2003, and nearly 75 percent of them died on rural roads.
There’s more, Kellner said.
Crash data also shows about 85 percent of the drivers in these fatal pickup crashes are males, and more than half are between 15 and 39 years old.
“Pickup drivers think they are safer in trucks than in cars, but they aren’t,” Kellner said. “According to research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in fatal crashes pickup trucks roll over twice as often as passenger cars do. And being thrown out of the vehicle is the most common cause of injury and death in rollover crashes.”
That’s why Extension’s Passenger Safety program, the Texas Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are spreading the word on a very simple way to prevent some of these deaths, Kellner said: “Buckle Up In Your Truck.”
Using safety belts in pickups reduces the risk of dying in a rollover crash by as much as 80 percent, she said.
“This year with a network of agents around the state covering even the most rural areas, Extension is focused on getting the message out about the upcoming Memorial Day Click It or Ticket mobilization,” Kellner said.
From May 23 to June 5, law enforcement officials will ticket and fine anyone who is violating state safety belt laws, she said.
“That includes the many pickup truck drivers who have been resisting safety belt use,” Chakiris added. “Buckling up is the smart move that gets you on down the road during the Click It or Ticket campaign and every day.”
Buckling up in any vehicle is important, she said, and pickups are no exception.
“For pickup truck drivers and passengers across rural Texas and everywhere else, using safety belts can mean the difference between making it home to the family or ending up in the emergency room with a very changed lifestyle or, even worse, not coming home at all,” Chakiris said.
For more information visit the Web at http://www.BuckleUpInYourTruck.com or call Extension’s Passenger Safety program at (979) 862-1782.
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