PLN 14

While scanning the contents of the Denver post blog, an article of much importance grabbed my attention. It was titled “State pushes teens to buckle up more”.

The article primarily described a semi- state wide campaign which took place in October (this year) to convince high school students to buckle their seat belts. After Anya Strauss encountered a terrible ordeal involving the effectiveness of a seat belt (she survived a car crash down a thirty foot hill due to her seat belt), she devoted part of her time to a program called “click it or ticket”. In it, law- enforcement personnel along with Anya, toured the state of Colorado and addressed the students in the 11 counties they visited. Discussion concentrated on the idea of buckling one’s seat belt during a car ride in order to lower the current teenager car crash death rate (as a result of not wearing a seat belt). The key goal of the program was to gather at least 400 signatures from the addressed teenagers promising to buckle up. The organizational leaders also stated that in 2005, 71 teenagers died in Colorado from car accidents, 50 of whom were not wearing seat belts.

The presented statistics are very helpful to understand just how dangerous the idea of not wearing a seat belt can potentially be. That’s 5/7 – about 71.5% of the teens died during a crash because they neglected their seat belts. In a couple of years, I will be driving a car; according to the statistics, I would be significantly safer if I happened to become victim to a car crash and was wearing a seat belt. Because of this I plan to do so.

Although law concerning this issue has been formulated, it still proves ineffective. People still do not bother to wear their seat belts, and as a result of their foolishness, they die if they become a victim of a crash. It would be a great deal more efficient to employ more police officers into the spectrum to enforce this vital law. Because people can elude the law unnoticed and hurt themselves (as a result of the small minority of members who make up the police force not being able to be in many places at once), action must be taken.