Buffalo, NY – Erie County Sheriff Timothy B. Howard wants to wish everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving and reminds travelers to buckle up during their drive to friends’ and relatives’ houses.

Each Thanksgiving weekend, millions of Americans will hit the roads, eager to spend time with family and friends. It’s one of the busiest travel times of the year, and unfortunately, that means the potential for more crashes so the Erie County Sheriff’s Office is reminding everyone that seat belts save lives and buckling up give people the best defense against injury or death in a crash.

In 2013, 21,132 passenger vehicle occupants (in passenger cars, pickup trucks, vans, or SUVs) killed in traffic crashes in the United States. Almost half (49%) of those victims killed were not wearing seat belts.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that seat belts saved the lives of 12,584 passenger vehicle occupants age 5 and older in 2013. But if everyone had worn their seat belts on every trip that year, an additional 2,800 lives could have been saved.

Make this Thanksgiving different from years past.

• During the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in 2013 (6 p.m. on Wednesday, November 27, to 5:59 a.m. on Monday, December 2), 301 people killed in traffic crashes across the nation.
• Tragically, 58 percent of those killed were not buckled up, representing a slight increase in seat belt use compared to the same weekend in 2012, when 61 percent of those killed in traffic crashes were unrestrained.
• Young people continue to be overrepresented in fatal crashes and seat belt nonuse. Among the passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2013, occupants ages 21-24 were unrestrained at a rate of 55 percent, with occupants 16-20 following close behind at a rate of 50-percent unrestrained.
• Males are more likely than females to be unrestrained in fatal crashes. Fifty-four percent of the male passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2013 were unrestrained, compared with 41 percent for females.
• If you’re ejected from a vehicle in a crash, odds are that you will not survive. In 2013, almost 8 out of 10 (79%) of the people totally ejected from vehicles in crashes were killed. Wearing your seat belt is the most effective way to prevent ejection; only 1 percent of occupants wearing seat belts were ejected in crashes, compared to 31 percent of those unrestrained.

Surviving your Thanksgiving drive this year—and making it to next Thanksgiving—can be as simple as buckling up. In the last decade, seat belts saved the lives of more 100,000 people in the United States. Those people are thankful they wore their seat belts.

Buckle Up America – Every Trip, Every Time. Drive safely this Thanksgiving 

***Note: statistics are from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  For more information please visit www.nhtsa.gov .