Featured Advertisers
Sun, Nov. 08  -   -  Mobile  -  RSS
  

Make a post about this story on FredTalk. Get a printer-friendly version of this page. E-mail this story to a friend.


Visit Kelly Hannon's blog: On the Road

Statistics show young men most likely to not buckle up

Seat-belt use in the United States has reached a new high

Date published: 5/18/2009


Click here to submit an item to Getting There

By Kelly Hannon

FINALLY, Ameri- cans have decided wearing a seat belt is a smart thing to do. Last year 83 percent of us buckled up, the highest rate of seat-belt use ever.

Of course, that still leaves a stubborn 17 percent unbuckled.

Convincing the holdouts has been difficult.

Men ages 18 to 34 are the demographic group most likely to ride or drive without wearing a seat belt, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Pickup truck drivers, teens, rural drivers and nighttime drivers also have higher rates of non-use of seat belts.

Plenty of young, male, truck-driving insomniacs who live in small towns probably do buckle up. But the NHTSA has to pick areas for improvement, and crash data seem to support the targets. In Virginia, among 18- to 34-year-old men who died in vehicle crashes last year, 78 percent of drivers and 77 percent passengers were not wearing seat belts. That's more than three out of four crash victims.

Fredericksburg-area law enforcement agencies will be checking for seat-belt use throughout the month, part of the national "Click It or Ticket" campaign.

Virginia is a secondary seat-belt enforcement state, where a driver can receive a ticket for not wearing a seat belt if he is stopped for another reason.

Dear Kelly: A question was asked over three years ago and VDOT said they would fix the problem. However, the issue was not fixed.

The question basically stated: At the intersection of Southpoint II and U.S. 1, in the right-turn lane in front of the Mattress Discounters to go south on U.S. 1, there is a sign that says "Right Lane Must Turn Right." However, the next right turn is to get into the Applebee's and Starbucks parking area.

Is there any way to add "At Signal" to that sign for people making the right turn to go south on U.S. 1?

The traffic backs up here every day almost to the Wal-Mart, but everyone is already in the turning lane to get to U.S. 1 rather than the shopping center. I was just hoping VDOT would have this fixed by now. Thank you!

--Jacob Newman, Spotsylvania

It's great to see I've maintained a reader for at least three years! Thank you.


1  2  3  Next Page  


Follow us on
twitter
fredericksburg.com Facebook page


Date published: 5/18/2009


Most recent reader comments:

Viewing all 2 comments. (Sorted in reverse order, with most recent post at the top.)

Display comments on this page. | Sort:

PLEASE READ: These reader comments are not moderated. Each user is solely responsible for any message (s)he posts here. The Free Lance-Star does not endorse the views expressed within these comments. All users who post to this Web site must agree to the terms of the FredTalk User Agreement. We rely on our readers to police themselves, and report any content that violates our User Agreement. In accordance with our User Agreement, we reserve the right to remove any post at any time for any reason, and will restrict access of registered users who repeatedly violate our terms. Any reader can report inappropriate content by clicking the "Report this post to admins" link at the bottom of each comment. You need not be registered to report a post.

That's no lie hokie (posted by wideopenspace , May 19, 2009 5:46 am)   
The only game of chicken being played is the fools who pull out when your right on top of the intersection and have someone beside you in the left lane that keeps you from moving over. I can tell you, Eastbound doesn't slow down a bit, Westbound only slows in the afternoons when the whole left lane is trying to get into the turn lane for 621.

Chicken game (posted by hokisteph5 , May 18, 2009 1:59 pm)   
There's no need to even slow down the intersection of routes 3 and 621. The "mounties" should have spent the past several years ensuring drivers obey the STOP sign at 621 instead of allowing them to treat it as a yield sign or green light.

What do you think?
Enter your FredTalk username and password to post a comment on this story. If you are registered on FredTalk or another part of this site, use that login here. Otherwise, you can just REGISTER here... .

Username: Password:

Post title:


Please keep it brief: (512-character limit)
Please make sure CAPS LOCK is off. Posts in ALL CAPS will be deleted.)


By checking this box, you agree to the terms of the FredTalk User agreement.