By Staff
Dear Editor:
Would it surprise you to learn that the leading cause of death for the U.S. military is traffic crashes in private vehicles?
That's right. Not combat or training exercises – but traffic accidents.
So if the world's greatest fighting force is not immune to traffic crashes, neither are the rest of us. In fact, traffic crashes are also the leading cause of death for children and teens.
That's why the Boerne Police Department will partner with the armed forces and more than 12,000 other law enforcement agencies in a nationwide crackdown against seat belt violators during Thanksgiving week.
During Click It or Ticket, law enforcement officers in the City of Boerne will use saturation patrols and stepped up enforcement from Nov. 25 – Dec. 1.
Drivers who fail to buckle up or buckle their child passengers will be ticketed.
Teens and young adults will continue to be a key target of Click It or Ticket. Fatality rates for teens are twice that of older drivers, and the risk of crashes for teens is four times that of older drivers.
This year, approximately 8,000 Americans, adults and children, will die in crashes simply because they failed to buckle their seat belts.
This is a critical time to get the word out about our agency's enforcement effort as more people than ever could be traveling on Texas' roadways.
The world is a different place since 9/11, but we must keep perspective and not lose sight of the greatest risk we face every day – traffic crashes.
We don't enjoy writing tickets, but we'll do it to save lives.
Keith Faulkner
Boerne Police Department