Inglis: Message to teen drivers is buckle up on every trip, every time
Stacey Inglis is the executive director and CEO of the Delaware Safety Council.
Oct. 15-21 is National Teen Driver Safety Week, and unfortunately, it is also when a Delmar High School junior, Carter Figgs, was laid to rest.
At 12:30 a.m. Oct. 7, Carter was one of four teens in a vehicle that crashed into a utility pole in Salisbury, Maryland. Carter was a passenger in the vehicle being driven by a 17-year-old.
According to the National Passenger Safety Campaign, 56% of the deaths of teenage passengers occurred in vehicles driven by another teenager. Graduated driver’s license programs nationwide restrict the number of passengers a teen driver may have in a vehicle. In Delaware, a teen driver may have only one other passenger, in addition to the driver, in the vehicle during their first year of driving.
Carter and another passenger were both found outside the vehicle by first responders — a strong indication that seat belts were not used, resulting in their ejections. Buckling up in our vehicles has been a law in Delaware since 1992.
In Delaware, the record-tying 165 motor vehicle-related deaths in 2022 showed that too many drivers and passengers do not “BUCKLE UP — Every Trip, Every Time.”
Of the 106 vehicle occupants killed in traffic crashes in 2022, only 62 (58%) were using occupant restraints.
The Delaware State Police Annual Traffic Statistical Report for 2022 notes that only 3% of all drivers in Delaware were age 18 and under; however, more than 16% of fatalities on our roads were minors.
The Delaware Safety Council, established in 1919, has worked for over a century to improve teen driver safety and increase safety awareness. A key part of those efforts has focused on driver education and improvement, highway safety and promoting motor vehicle occupant safety.
Michael Wagner, a driver education associate with the Delaware Department of Education, and Pete Booker, founder of the former SmartDrive Foundation focusing on teen driver safety, are both on the board of directors of the council. Both Mike Wagner and the Delaware Safety Council are active participants in the Teen Driver Task Force in the Office of Highway Safety.
SmartDrive, now one of Delaware Safety Council’s teen driver and passenger safety awareness programs, encourages all teens who drive or ride in motor vehicles to buckle up on every trip every time through the online Click-4-Life Campaign.
The council is asking Delaware teens and parents of teens to take the pledge and promise to Click-4-Life using their mobile phones. Students will make their pledge to buckle up and are then encouraged to share their pledge among their peers using social media.
A copy of the student’s pledge is sent to their parent, to show they have made the commitment to being safe in motor vehicles — both as drivers and passengers.
The message also reminds those parents that they, too, should buckle up every time.
We also ask that parents encourage teens and tweens to make the SmartDrive Click-4-Life pledge at smartdriveusa.org/c4l.
For additional information, contact the Delaware Safety Council at 302-276-0660, email contact@delawaresafety.org or visit delawaresafety.org.
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