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Issue: # 2011006March 2, 2011
Click It--Don't Risk It Chronicle
In This Issue
The Boy Scout motto:..."Be Prepared"
Bryan High School Health Fair
Quick Links
Greetings!

 The article in the last Chronicle about early safety belts brought back memories for John Ways, a Coalition member and state employee. 

 

"I remember back when my  kids were very young in the 1960s,  I installed harnesses for each of them in the back seat of my 1961 Chevy.  They looked more like parachute harnesses and I thought they were before their time.  They were still in that vehicle I had stored until it was stolen about 6 years ago. No one else had them at the time. ... Brings back memories."

 

John, you were definitely ahead of your time in those days before child safety seats!    Now, almost every car has belts in it--all you have to do is use them, and no installation for belts is required.  Thanks to you Coalition members who are striving to get everyone to buckle up!  

 

Let us know here at Click It--Don't Risk It what you are doing to get the buckling rate up even higher in the state of Nebraska! 


The Boy Scout motto:  "Be Prepared"      

Weren't we just talking about not knowing when your car might be in a crash?  You should always wear your safety belt because you just never know!

 

kelvin's crash driver side

Sometimes the sales guys here at the Greater Omaha Chapter of the National Safety Council drive Council cars on their way to sales appointments. There are a lot of good reasons for that, but imagine the surprise of the guy who ran a red light in front of Kelvin Thurman.  There's nothing like crashing into a National Safety Council car to make you evaluate your driving.  Good thing Kelvin was buckled up.   

 

Kelvin says:   

"Are you serious?  A car accident!  This can't happen to an employee of the National Safety Council.  It was a typical day.  I met with a client to go over paperwork, and our meeting concluded.  I got into the organization's vehicle, a 2009 Pontiac G6, buckled my seat belt and was heading back to the office.

 

I was approaching the corner when the light turned green.  I proceeded traveling through the intersection when I saw a flash from the corner of my eye.  A black utility vehicle was moving into the space my car was already traveling toward and was going to be in one tenth of a second.  I knew in a split second there is going to be a serious crash.  In the blink of an eye, the crash occurred, the airbag deployed and the seat belt tightened, keeping me in my seat.  All the safety features happened just as designed.  The other driver had run a red light and caused the accident to occur.

 

Even though that day I did everything right, accidents do happen.  We must be prepared.  Wearing your seatbelt can save your life or lower the risk of serious injury.  I averted serious injury because the seat belt was successful in keeping me in the safest place--in the car the seat."


Crashes happen to the best of us, so keep spreading the word about being sure to buckle up! And be sure that your company requires safety belt use in company cars!

Bryan High School Health Fair 

On February 17, Bryan High School in Omaha held a health fair in conjunction with parent-teacher conferences. Many families attended and received information about safety bBryan HS Health Fairelts.    

One conversation I had was with a teenage girl who purposely brought her father over to the table and translated for her parents from English to Spanish.  The situation was that the father is not a seat-belt wearer, and this girl was very concerned that her dad was not understanding the difference a safety belt can make.   

The opposite also occurred. I talked to a father/daughter pair where the father was a professional delivery driver.  He stated that he would never go anywhere in a car without a safety belt, because he sees many acts of very poor driving all around him every day.  From the height of a delivery truck, you can see what other drivers are doing while they're driving.  This daughter was unconcerned.  Her approach to safety belts is to wear them if her father is in the car, but otherwise not.   

One sad conversation was with a mom who realized--after her son was ejected and killed in a crash and it was too late--that she hadn't emphasized belt use to her kids. She felt both sorrow and guilt.  After that, her whole extended family developed a clicking habit.     

How about you? Your family?  Do your kids only buckle up when you're looking?   How about your kids' school, your company, your friends and colleagues?  How about your entire community?  Aren't you tired of newspaper articles about people killed because they were not belted? 

Don't forget to have a Safety Belt table at your next health fair!  

check out the Bryan High School website 

 

 
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.