Operation TEACH:
Teach Every American CHild
TO BUCKLE UP
An integral part of Buckle Up America is getting school-aged children, and their parents, buckled up. Operation TEACH Teach Every American CHild TO BUCKLE UP is a call to
action by various agencies, community groups and school-based organizations to provide parents and children with the information they need to stay safe. Please help us save lives by increasing seat belt and child safety seat use in your community.
It's a scientific fact. Every 14 minutes, someone is killed in a traffic crash. Every 14 seconds, someone is injured. Of these, an average of nine children ages 0-15 were killed and 1,132 were injured daily in crashes during 1996. Right now in America, seat belt use is only 69 percent and in 1996, over half of the 0-15 year-old vehicle occupants involved in fatal crashes were not buckled up. The goal is to reach 85 percent seat belt use by the year 2000 and to reduce child fatalities (0-4) by 15 percent. To reach these goals, we all have a role to play.
We must educate our children and get them involved. It's our civic duty to pull together on the local level to understand seat belt and child passenger safety laws and support and encourage high visibility enforcement and education about buckling up. These interventions are proven to save lives, reduce injuries and save all of us money by holding the line on health care costs and insurance rates. In fact, states with strong laws, active enforcement and education programs have average belt use 15 points or more higher than other states.
We can teach our children to be effective advocates for buckling up. They will also be enriched by learning about seat belts and child restraints proper use, where and how to sit safely in motor vehicles, the benefits and risks that air bags present and how to identify cars equipped with air bags. There are specific activities that they can do to help that are both educational and fun.We encourage you as a parent, teacher, school administrator or community leader to encourage kids' participation in Operation TEACH.
It is important to remember that proper use of seat belts and child restraints is a complicated issue. Many injuries occur because people believe they know the proper way to buckle in children of different ages and sizes. That false sense of safety may turn deadly for an incorrectly secured child. We have free material available so you have accurate information to properly implement your Operation TEACH activities.
It's mathematically correct. Together, we can achieve the goal of 85 percent seat belt use by 2000. The reward: saving over 80 lives every week! One of those lives could be that of a child close to you.