After a promising start to 2020- with a five-year low in January traffic fatalities- February did not follow suit and ended with 63 people killed (preliminary results) in Missouri traffic crashes.
A news release says as the state eyes a longterm vision for zero traffic fatalities, there have been 10 days thus far in 2020 with no fatal traffic crashes. Meanwhile, there were 12 days in February alone when three or more people were killed in a crash, including six fatalities on Super Bowl Sunday.
Traffic crashes constitute a public health crisis- one that claimed the lives of 877 people in Missouri and more than 36,000 nationwide last year.
Missouri’s Buckle Up Phone Down campaign has seen tremendous success with more than 500 businesses and 13,000 individuals pledging to adopt those two lifesaving steps. Seat-belt usage has increased by 6.3 percent in the last three years in Missouri; and fatalities dropped six percent during that same period.
Preliminary statistics show that 72 percent of drivers and passengers killed in 2020 crashes thus far were unbuckled. Compared to 2019, this is a nine-percent increase in the number of unbuckled occupants killed. While excessive speed, aggression, distraction and impairment remain the leading causes of fatal traffic crashes in Missouri, seat belts, car seats and helmets remain a person’s number one defense should a crash occur.