University Police is in the midst of an annual campaign, deploying special patrols to look for motorists who are not wearing their seatbelts.
Buckle-Up Day and Night runs through April 29 at SUNY Oswego. This is part of the nationwide effort that traditionally takes place in May, but University Police is granted a variation to run the campaign earlier due to the college Commencement in mid-May.
The patrols are funded by a grant from the federal government through the New York State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee.
In New York State, every month, an average of 715 motorists who do not wear a seat belt are injured severely enough to require hospital treatment; 153 of them sustain injuries serious enough to require inpatient hospitalization, according to University Police. That amounts to 8,584 motorists that are treated at a hospital for their injuries.
Treatment of these injuries results in over $134 million in emergency room and hospitalization charges; 12 percent (over $16 million) of the hospitalization and emergency room charges are charged to “public funds.”
Unrestrained motorists involved in a crash are almost four times as likely to suffer a traumatic brain injury as those wearing a seatbelt, police said.
Statewide, law enforcement is seeing a seat belt compliance rate of over 90 percent, but that means there are still nearly 10 percent of people not wearing seat belts. The chance of survival in a crash increases by 60 percent for someone wearing a seat belt, and they don’t have to worry about being stopped by the police or receiving a ticket for failure to wear one.
Wearing a seatbelt when riding in a motor vehicle saves lives, reduces injuries, and saves money, University Police said, urging: Please, wear your seat belt day and night.