Prom Season Safety: Colorado Troopers Urge Teens to Speak Up and Buckle Up

Description: Colorado State Patrol reminds teens during prom season to wear seat belts and ensure passengers buckle up. New campaign highlights rising teen crash risks and life-saving safety habits. Read the full Press release from Colorado State Patrol Public Affairs Office...

You Set the Standard

Speak up if your passenger doesn't buckle up

(COLO) – It's prom season, and that can come with a lot of planning and tasks. You have the outfit, flowers, and reservation, but does your teen have the confidence to tell his or her date to buckle up? Buckling up is the single most effective thing you can do to protect yourself in a crash, and last year, Colorado State Troopers responded to 4,187 at-fault crashes involving drivers aged 16-21; 346 of those occurred during April.

"Colorado law states that drivers under age 18 are required to wear a seat belt and also ensure that their passengers, whether a friend, date, or family member, wear one too," stated Col. Matthew C. Packard, chief of the Colorado State Patrol. "Teens can be pulled over for this as a primary violation. And this citation includes an automatic summons to court. Make sure your young driver is prepared to speak up if a passenger isn't buckled up."

Seat belt use in Colorado is increasing, with the current usage rate of 90.7%, the highest rate in the state's history. Unfortunately, teens are the least likely age group to wear them.
"Troopers have heard several excuses on date nights from 'I forgot' to 'It was wrinkling my outfit," explained Col. Packard. "Safety devices aren't optional, and as the driver or passenger, you can set the standard to create a positive, safe drive. Make wearing seatbelts the norm."

Strategies to Address Unbuckled Passengers

• Stay calm, assertive and polite
• Some suggesting phrasing:
  • I feel safer when everyone is buckled up. Would you do me a favor and put your seatbelt on?
  • Thanks for driving. I'd love it if you'd buckle up.
• You can also shift it from focusing on their safety to your own by sharing that unbuckled people can hurt others in the vehicle by becoming a projectile. 
  • I'd rather have you NOT slam into me if we're in a crash. Please wear your seatbelt.

Lap and shoulder belts prevent ejection from the vehicle and keep people from colliding with the vehicle interior during a crash. When worn properly, seat belts protect you by spreading the force of impact across your body's strongest parts and keep you from being ejected from the vehicle.

As your teen heads out for prom or any other purpose, it's important that everyone in the vehicle wears a seat belt. Troopers ask that parents and caregivers use this prom season as an opportunity to remind them of this life-saving action.

The Colorado State Patrol is launching a multi-month "The Sound the Saves" campaign to increase seat belt awareness and use across Colorado. This campaign targets the youngest and newest drivers to close the gap between the 92% national seat belt use rate and Colorado's 90.7% seat belt use rate. Buckle Like a Boss.

Follow SECO News on Facebook.
Subscribe to the SECO News YouTube Channel.

Press releases Sponsor