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Emerald Isle Police Safety Highlight
Maj Chief Chad Edwards
Although the first official day of summer is not until later in the month, many of those seeking warmer weather have already begun to arrive. This annual influx of visitors means a lot of things for our community. The most noticeable sign that vacation season is upon us is the increase in traffic! Yes, we have to drive in it, too. During the coming months, we are going to take a look at a few topics to help keep us safe while traveling through our beautiful town. We are even going to give you an opportunity to help us choose the subject matter.
If we are talking safety, we should probably begin with the number one reason motorists and passengers are killed in crashes: not buckling up. Approximately 40,000 people die on our country’s roadways annually. In the last five years there have been 7,263 people killed in North Carolina in motor vehicle crashes. 2,312 of them were not wearing a seatbelt. A bit closer to home, during the same time period, Carteret County alone lost 47 motorists, 16 of whom were unbelted (Safety Dashboard, 2024).
So why are seatbelts so important? We all remember learning Newton’s first law of motion which, to paraphrase, states that an object in motion will remain in motion until it is acted upon by an external force. The same rule applies to people in vehicles. If a vehicle involved in a crash comes to a sudden stop and the occupants are not strapped in, they will continue traveling at the same speed until they come into contact with an external force. Police officers and first responders unfortunately see this on an all too frequent basis.
Seatbelts and child restraint laws are also applicable to golf carts and low-speed vehicles and can result in the same fine as not buckling up in a traditional vehicle. The current fine is $25 and comes with a court cost of $153.50 (Seat Belts, n.d.). Driving on the beach mandates that seatbelts be worn as well.
So how does the Emerald Isle Police Department enforce these laws? Traffic safety is historically approached through the “three E’s”: Education, Engineering, and Enforcement. We educate through various platforms such as this article. Some other educational tools are Police Educating the Public (PEP), social media posts, and numerous public events throughout the year. When it comes to enforcement, we participate in high visibility enforcement events throughout the year, many of which focus on seatbelt enforcement. We recently partnered with the North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program along with other agencies throughout the state in the Memorial Day Click It or Ticket Campaign. From May 20th through June 22nd our agency issued 95 state citations. Why not warnings? Warning tickets are generally used to educate people about rules or laws they may not be aware of. Since the mid-nineties we have been inundated with information about how vital seatbelts are to safety through television commercials, billboards, etc. Click It or Ticket is a household phrase by now so there should be no reason for anyone not knowing the law. As always, the ultimate goal is voluntary compliance.
Even if you drive a car with the latest safety features, wearing your seat belt gives you approximately a fifty-percent higher chance of surviving a serious crash (Seat belts, n.d.). Please buckle up, every seat, every time.
Now let’s keep the conversation going! We want you to pick the next traffic safety topic. Please respond to Officer Beere and vote on the following or suggest your own.
· Impaired Driving
· Speeding
· Distracted Driving
· Bicycle Safety
· Child Restraints
References
Click it or ticket - law. North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program (n.d.). https://www.clickitorticket.org/Pages/law.aspx
Safety Dashboard. NC Vision Zero. (2024). https://ncvisionzero.org/data-analytics/safety-dashboard/
Seat belts. NHTSA. (n.d.). https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle-safety/seat-belts#:~:text=Being%20buckled%20up%20during%20a,vehicle%20is%20almost%20always%20deadly.&text=If%20you%20don’t%20wear,Learn%20about%20air%20bag%20safety.
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