THANKSGIVING
The Thanksgiving 2008 Click It or Ticket Campaign News Conference took place at Lenox Square in Atlanta, Georgia at 10:30 a.m.
The Southwestern Traffic Enforcement Network (SWTEN) helped to kick off the Rural Roads Initiative in South Georgia by holding a meeting at the Grady County Senior Center on November 17, 2008. After the meeting, several roadcheck locations were set up in Cairo and Whigham, GA. The meeting's host was Cairo PD Sgt. Bruce Womble (SWTEN Coordinator). Photos can be found at the wehuntatnight website....
A news conference was held on GA Highway 7 (Inner Perimeter Road) and Jaycee Shack Road in Valdosta, GA, at 11:00 AM on Tuesday, November 18, 2008. The news conference announced the high profile statewide Rural Roads Enforcement Crackdown for safety belt and child passenger safety seats.
Speakers at the news conference were:
Bob Dallas, Director, GOHS
Capt. Bernard Robinson, Valdosta PD Patrol Commander
Capt J. D. Yeager, Lowndes Co SO
Sgt. Carl Taylor, Commander GSP Post 31
Sgt. James Partain, Tift Co SO (SRTEN Asst. Coordinator)
Photos can be found at the wehuntatnight website....
NEWS CONFERENCE-PART ONE
NEWS CONFERENCE--PART TWO
ROLL-OVER SIMULATOR: NO SEAT BELT, NO LUCK
ROLL-OVER SIMULATOR: SEAT BELTS SAVE LIVES IN GEORGIA
When you put your family in the car this Thanksgiving, it’s every parent’s duty to tell them about the Facts of Life.. (And Death). Take a deep breath and count to three:
ONE: Nationwide, more than half of all traffic crash victims killed during Thanksgiving holiday weekends were NOT wearing their safety belts.
TWO: Due tolow safety belt use the heavily-traveled Thanksgiving holiday is one of the most dangerous and deadliest times of the year to drive.
THREE: Here in Georgia, failure to use safety belts is a major contributing factor in more than half of Thanksgiving holiday traffic deaths.
Your entire family could be buckled-up in the time it took to read about those unfortunate folks who forgot. And if your kids are too young to hear all these scary statistics, then it’s your responsibility to make sure they’re buckled into child safety seats appropriate for their age, weight and height.
“It’s just so clear that safety belts save lives,” says Director Bob Dallas of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety (GOHS). “And yet day or night-- Georgia or nationwide-- unbuckled drivers and their passengers continue to pay the price.. With their lives. That’s why we always need to buckle up! Otherwise, it’s just a never ending formula for fatalities:”
Still unbuckled?
When it was over, the four-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend in 2007 had claimed the lives of 26 people in Georgia traffic crashes and injured nearly eleven-hundred more.. And you never knew because seat belt stories rarely make statewide headlines.
“For those who think ‘it just can’t happen to me’, there were 2,744 crashes in Georgia alone during that short holiday travel period,” GOHS Director Dallas. “What are your chances of surviving one without the safety of a seat belt?”
That’s why police, sheriff’s deputies, and state troopers in Georgia will be cracking down on unbuckled drivers and their passengers when Operation Click It Or Ticket begins Monday, November 17, 2008 and continues through the Thanksgiving holiday travel period to Sunday, November 30 th.
“High holiday fatality and injury predictions are the reason we’ve asked every law enforcement agency in Georgia to participate in the November Click It Or Ticket campaign,” said Director Dallas. “The GOHS safetybelt enforcement campaign coordinates high-visibility road checks and concentrated patrols so that officers from Blue Ridge to Blackshear and from Warm Springs to Woodbine will write tickets to remind motorists to wear their safety belts.”
“I’ve said it before; this is not about writing more tickets. It’s about saving more lives,” said Dallas.
“And I’ll keep saying that until we stop seeing needless deaths on Georgia highways because drivers and passengers won’t invest the three seconds it takes to protect them from sudden death or serous injury by buckling up. Safety belts should become a part of every family’s holiday tradition,” said Director Dallas. For safety’s sake, everyone should be buckled-up, every seat, every trip, every time.”
And this November 17th there’s a special Click It Or Ticket ‘country roads’ crackdown coming because the number of deadly crashes out on country roads actually accounts for more than half of all Georgia traffic fatalities. Our crash data shows Georgia’s rural roads are more dangerous than our busy interstates. So a special enforcement campaign aimed at Georgia’s Rural Roads is buckling down on those not buckled-up. Georgians driving or riding on rural roadways face a much greater risk of being injured or killed in traffic crashes than those in urban or suburban areas because more of those Georgians aren’t wearing their safety belts. So all across Georgia, if you don’t click it, expect a ticket!
SPECIAL THANKS TO LENOX SQUARE MANAGEMENT FOR THEIR SUPPORT DURING THE NEWS CONFERENCE
THANKS ALSO TO OUR SPEAKERS: ATLANTA POLICE DEPARTMENT, GEORGIA STATE PATROL, ASHLEY GRANT, AND ROAD SAFE AMERICA