Q&A Tuesday: State joins national campaign on seat belt use for fifth year

Chuck Abbott is the head of Nevada's Office of Traffic Safety. The office this week began a statewide campaign to educate Nevada motorists on the importance of wearing their seat belts.

What is "Click It or Ticket?"

Its purpose is to save lives. It's a national program started in 1998 to increase awareness of the importance of safety belts. We do it every spring. It's a public- awareness program. We need to reinforce the message out there because a lot of people slide a bit when they're going to the store or whatever. Remember, 80 percent of accidents happen within 25 miles of home.

First, we tell people to buckle up. If they don't buckle up, enforcement will step in, beginning Monday. Unfortunately, a lot of people are more afraid of getting a ticket than they are of dying. This kind of puts that fear in them that if you're not wearing your seat belt, you're going to get a ticket.

How does Nevada compare with other states, as far as seat belt use?

We have pretty good rate in Nevada. We were third in the nation in 2005, at 94.8 percent.

Hawaii is the highest state, at 95.3 percent. Washington was 95.2, and Arizona is right up there, too - 94.2 percent. Most everybody wears the belts, but even though we're that high, 52 percent of the fatalities in Nevada were not wearing belts.

We've done it for five years, and during those five years, we've taken safety belt use from 75 percent to 95 percent.

You said the campaign is done every spring. Why?

Memorial Day. That's when people start to hit the roads traditionally.

We give law enforcement additional grant funds to go out and do some additional enforcement, put some extra patrols out there. And the younger drivers are out driving more once school lets out.

Will people be pulled over for not wearing seat belts?

No, not in Nevada. There are something like 26 states now that have primary seat belt laws allowing people to be pulled over for not wearing belts. But we're not a primary state. Under Nevada law, you can only be cited for not wearing a seat belt if you're pulled over for another reason.

Who isn't wearing seat belts?

The 5 percent to 6 percent who are not wearing the belts are the ones dying in crashes. And more males than women. The target group is males, 18 to 34. If you don't stay on those guys, they tend to slack off. The rate is definitely better with women.

Sixty-seven percent of the male drivers killed in (Nevada) crashes in 2004 were not wearing belts - and 73 percent of male passengers who were killed.

One of the reasons we really made some gains in 2005 is we concentrated on our Hispanic population. That really made for a jump.

What about airbags? Don't they protect drivers and passengers?

A lot of people say I don't need belts because I have airbags. But if that belt doesn't hold you in the right place, the airbag can't protect you. The two work together.