GHSO & Law Enforcement Agencies Work to Save Lives on Rural Roads

NASHVILLE – In an effort to save lives, the Governor’s Highway Safety Office is joining forces with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and State and local highway safety and law enforcement leaders across Tennessee to conduct a special high-visibility Click It or Ticket enforcement campaign in May.

 

Beginning May 11, the special enforcement campaign will buckle down on all motorists not buckling up – but especially those in rural areas.  The enforcement effort will coincide with Tennessee’s traditional Click It or Ticket enforcement blitz during the Memorial Day holiday.

 

“We are sending the Click It or Ticket message out loud and clear to all drivers and passengers, but with a special emphasis on our rural areas,” said TDOT Commissioner Gerald Nicely.  “Almost 60% of traffic fatalities in Tennessee in 2007 occurred in rural areas.”

 

Tennessee’s statistics are consistent with recent NHTSA findings that show even though only about a quarter of the U.S. population live in rural areas, rural fatalities accounted for more than half of all traffic fatalities in 2007.

 

Commissioner Nicely added that in addition to motorists in rural areas, teen drivers, particularly young males, as well as pickup truck drivers and passengers are other sections of the population most at risk of experiencing a fatal crash. 

 

Low seat belt use in pickup trucks is a particularly big problem across the state.  In Tennessee, 80 percent of pickup truck occupants killed in traffic crashes were not restrained, where restraint use was known.

 

“Seat belts clearly save lives. Unfortunately, too many drivers in Tennessee, and particularly those in our rural areas, need a tough reminder,” said GHSO Director Kendell Poole.  “So this May, we’re committed to doing everything we can to convince drivers that regular seat belt use is the single most effective way to protect people and reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes.”

 

Sequatchie County Sheriff Ronnie Hitchcock warned, “No more warnings. No more excuses. No matter who you are or where you are on the road, but especially in Tennessee’s rural areas, if you don’t want to risk a ticket, or more importantly, your life, Click It or Ticket.”

 

For more information, please visit www.tdot.state.tn.us/ClickItorTicket/ , www.region4ruralbeltproject.org, or www.NHTSA.gov.

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For more information contact:

 

GHSO Director Kendell Poole
615-741-2589

Julie Oaks, TDOT Public Information Officer
615-741-9930
Julie.A.Oaks@tn.gov