Teens More Likely to be Killed in Unbelted Crashes; Reenactment Demonstrates Seat Belts Save Lives – Day and Night          
          
WHO:           
          
Chief James Johnson, Baltimore County Police Chief Elizabeth A. Baker, PhD – National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Region 3 Administrator          
Vernon F. Betkey, Jr. – Maryland State Highway Administration’s Highway Safety Office Chief & Governor’s Highway Safety Association Chairman           
Chief Scott Keller – Princess Anne Police Department; Real Life Story of Safety Belt Use 200 students from Our Lady of Mt. Carmel High          
          
WHAT:           
          
This event supports Maryland’s participation in the Click It or Ticket campaign, a national effort to enforce seat belt use. This year’s campaign focuses on getting teen drivers to buckle up and nighttime enforcement, when the odds of being killed in a motor vehicle crash are three times greater than daylight. Maryland efforts also stress seat belt use to pickup truck drivers, who generally display lower seat belt compliance in surveys.          
          
Event highlights will include:          
• A full enactment of a motor vehicle crash scene highlighting the consequences of not wearing a seat belt during a traffic crash.          
• Chief Scott Keller, a Maryland Police Chief whose life was saved through his own use of a seat belt.          
• A seat belt enforcement operation by Baltimore County police after the event – media is invited to attend.          
          
WHY:           
          
More than half of Maryland drivers killed in crashes at night (between 8 p.m. – 6 a.m.) were not wearing seat belts).          
          
More than 65 percent of those drivers killed in traffic crashes during nighttime hours were between the ages of 19 and 34 years old.          
          
On average, 500 people would be alive today if they had simply buckled up! “Buckle-up” is the first message of the Choose Safety for Life campaign’s five keys to saving lives on the road, represented in the acronym B-SAFE.          
          
WHEN:          
          
Tuesday, May 19 at 1 p.m.          
          
WHERE:          
          
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel High School          
1706 Old Eastern Avenue          
Essex, MD 21221          
          
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