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| WHEREAS, |
May 18 to May 25, 1998, has been declared Buckle Up America! Week; |
| WHEREAS, |
motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death in the United States for every age from 6 to 27 years old (based on 1996 data); |
| WHEREAS, |
safety belts are the most effective safety devices in vehicles today, saving an estimated 9,500 lives each year; |
| WHEREAS, |
49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Territories have enacted safety belt use laws, and all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Territories have enacted laws requiring the use of child passenger restraint systems; |
| WHEREAS, |
Buckle Up America! Week provides communities and organizations an opportunity to join together to increase the correct use of safety belts, and to educate the motoring public to secure every child age 12 and under in the back seat in a restraint system appropriate to their age and size on every trip; |
| WHEREAS, |
those drivers who use their safety belts only on long trips or highway driving should know that 3 out of 4 crashes occur within 25 miles of home; |
| WHEREAS, |
research shows that if a driver is unbuckled, 70 percent of the time children riding in that vehicle won�t be buckled either; |
| WHEREAS, |
through continued public awareness, education, and enforcement of safety belt laws to increase usage, death and serious injury can be significantly reduced; |
| NOW, THEREFORE, I, |
[name and title of local official or organization leader], in recognition of this national life-saving opportunity, join with others across the country to proclaim [name of community]�s support for Buckle Up America! Week and encourage the community to observe the week with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities to increase the use of safety belts and safety seats with the goal of increasing state use rates; to support the efforts of enforcement agencies to increase compliance with state occupant protection laws; and to encourage part-time users to become full-time users. |
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