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Greetings!
Firefighters are an employment group in America that has taken the need for safety belts seriously enough to call for every station and every firefighter in the country to sign a pledge to buckle up. Their goal is to ensure that every firefighter in America buckles up every trip, every time, in part because of this disturbing statistic. According to Virginia Lutz, Safety and Occupational Health Specialist, NIOSH Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, over the last 30 years, firefighters as a group have experienced an average of 10 fatalities a year because of people not buckling up. A Fire Department of New York (FDNY) presentation stated that 20-25 % of firefighter fatalities are vehicle-related, and 80% of those fatalities were unbelted.
Check out this website for the full radio broadcast of firefighting officials from many locations discussing the need for this pledge. You can also see some testamonials from some New York emergency personnel on the same site.
What are some things the different officials are doing to ensure compliance? They're looking for buy-in, not just forced compliance, so there's emphasis being put on education and training. They are also putting resources into ensuring that safety belt equipment works well in the various vehicles. Stickers and other notices remind staff to buckle up.
Top-down commitment is important in this group as well. And, there is also confidence that when a firefighter signs a pledge, he or she will comply with that intention.
There may be more risks in firefighting than in other professions. There is no doubt that it is a dangerous occupation. Not only are the fires dangerous, but generally firetrucks are also one of the few vehicles on the road consistently speeding and cutting corners. Because of that, a safety belt is as important as the other pieces of safety equipment the firefighters use.
But every business, not just firefighting, needs to know that staff will be there the next day, and can't afford for one of their staff members to experience a career-ending injury. Every profession can take a tip from the firefighters in acknowledging that the lack of a belt in a crash is not smart.
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Click It attends the annual GHSA meeting!
| | The Governor's Highway Safety Association (GHSA) annual meeting was held during the last week of September in Kansas City.
Members of the Click It team joined the celebration of Highway Safety Officials from across the country that the use of seat belts in 2009 saved an estimated 12,713 lives!
We also learned about efforts happening across the country to continue the upward trend of seatbelt use, and the continuing progress in new ways to track it.
Many states have adopted primary enforcement of safety belt laws, which is a very effective way to increase compliance. Since Nebraska is presently a secondary enforcement state, our coalition needs to continue doing an outstanding job of getting that word out--Safety belts Save Lives!
Here Dennis Utter from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) explains new safety belt compliance tallying methodology.
Read more about the GHSA meeting
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Sometimes crashes are too close to home
| | We all know that safety belts save lives, and we're all working very hard to make sure that Nebraskans make good use of the belts already in their vehicles. Even when you know all the facts though, being affected personally is always an impactful reminder.
A co-worker's father, Norman Christensen, was involved in a crash last Saturday. His pick-up rolled, and he ended up out in a field with a lot of lost blood. Because of his safety belt, this 71-yr-old was able to climb out of the window of his smashed pickup, and walk away from what could have been a very serious situation for him.
What a great reminder of why we do this--you never know who might be spared from injury or even death by the use of a safety belt. |
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The "Click It Chronicle," our Click It Campaign e-letter, published whenever there is news, is available to all those interested in increasing safety belt usage. Please share this information freely. Take the information, copy to friends, businesses and organizations with the same concerns. Using the information provided will help reduce the needless fatalities and injuries on our highways and the associated costs. To subscribe to this e-letter, join the coalition, or be removed from the list, contact the Click It Team at cidri@safenebraska.org. |
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