The single most effective thing to prevent injuries and death in a car crash is to wear your seat belt. While most drivers and passengers are wearing their seat belts in the front seat, many adults riding in the back seat do not feel they need to buckle their seat belt.

A study from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety finds that to be far from true. Unbelted rear passengers can become human projectiles, injuring themselves and the other passengers, even those wearing seatbelts.

Testing by the IIHS found that a driver who has an unbelted passenger sitting behind them is twice as likely to die in the event of a wreck, even if wearing a seatbelt. When traveling at just 35 miles per hour, the unbelted rear passenger will slam into the driver with a force strong enough to deflate the airbag. As the driver, you are the captain of your ship, and should ask all passengers to buckle up in the front and back. When drivers are buckled up, it is much more likely that their passengers will buckle up.

Now more than ever it is important to wear a seat belt in the front and the back and make sure children are buckled up properly. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, in 2020 the number of people who died while not wearing a seat belt increased by 16% over 2019, with 1,073 unbuckled drivers and passengers killed on Texas roadways.

Now more than ever it is important to wear a seat belt in the front and the back and make sure children are buckled up properly. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, in 2020 the number of people who died while not wearing a seat belt increased by 16% over 2019, with 1,073 unbuckled drivers and passengers killed on Texas roadways.

Wearing a seat belt helps keep occupants from being ejected in a crash, and increases the chances of surviving by 45%. In pickup trucks that number jumps to 60%, as those vehicles are twice as likely as cars to roll over in a crash. Seat belts are the best defense against impaired, aggressive, and distracted drivers. Texas law requires all passengers to buckle up in the front and the back, even in 15 passenger vans!

This year’s Click It or Ticket campaign runs from May 23-June 5, and includes Memorial Day weekend when there will be extra travelers on the road. When the Click It or Ticket campaign launched in 2002, only 76% of Texans used their seat belts. Today, nearly nine out of 10 Texans buckle up. In 2021 observed seat belt use in Texas was 88.2% for drivers and 88.8% for passengers.

Here’s a reminder to drivers and passengers of important safety tips.

Children should ride in the back seat until they reach the age of 13. Until a child reaches age 13, their bones are not fully developed. Placing a child whose bones are not yet strong enough in the front seat where there is the windshield, dashboard, and air bags puts them at greater risk of injury or death during a crash.

Pickup trucks, while big and strong, are twice as likely to rollover in a crash due to their higher center of gravity. Wearing a seat belt reduces the risk of dying in a pickup truck crash. It is important to always make sure the driver and every passenger in a pickup truck is buckled up.

Buckling up is not just for the daytime. Between 6 p.m. and 5:59 a.m. is when more crashes and fatalities happen.

Buckle up on short trips as well as long trips. Most fatal crashes happen within 25 miles from home, and at speeds of less than 40 mph.

The single most effective thing you can do as a driver and passenger is to wear your seat belt and make sure that everyone in the vehicle buckles up!