Congressman Michael C. Burgess (TX-26) supports the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) “Click It or Ticket” campaign which runs from today into June which is National Drive Safe Month.

While on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. Michael Burgess introduced transportation legislation to develop and implement a process for the expedited environmental review and approval of safety emergency highway construction or maintenance projects that correct or improve hazardous locations on a highway.

“Stronger legislation to improve highway conditions can only accomplish part of our quest for safe driving conditions,” said Congressman Michael Burgess. “Individual drivers must do their part by wearing their safety belts every time the get behind the wheel.”

Nearly one in five Americans (or 18 percent nationally) still fail to regularly wear their safety belts when driving or riding in a motor vehicle, according to a new report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Among those least likely to buckle up: young males, pickup truck drivers and their passengers, people who live in rural areas, and night-time drivers.

According to the Texas Department of Transportation, Texas leads the nation in traffic fatalities. In 2000, 3,769 people were killed and more than 300,000 were injured on Texas streets and highways. Thanks to “Click It or Ticket,” safety belt use in Texas has increased from, 76 percent to 89.9 percent since 2002.

Even though this is a significant increase, some drivers still mistakenly believe that safety belts are not helpful, but statistics prove that the failure to regularly wear a safety belt can be deadly.

According to a preliminary report from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 43,200 died on the nation’s highways in 2005, up from 42,636 in 2004. Injuries dropped from 2.79 million in 2004 to 2.68 million in 2005, a decline of 4.1 percent. Fifty-five percent of passenger vehicle occupants who died in 2005 were unbelted.

“I recognize that many individuals feel it is their right to wear or not wear their safety belts in their automobile, but I can tell you that by not doing so, drivers are not only in violation of the law, they are risking their lives,” stated Congressman Michael Burgess. “All motorists deserve to drive on the safest roads possible and under that safest possible conditions and that means they must buckle up.”

Regular safety belt use is the single most effective way to protect people and reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes. When worn correctly, safety belts have proven to reduce the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent – and by 60 percent in pickup trucks, SUVs and mini-vans.

Safety belt checkpoints and other stepped-up law enforcement activities will be conducted during the national “Click It or Ticket” enforcement mobilization, which runs May 22^nd through June 4^th.

For more information on the national “Click It or Ticket” mobilization, please visit www.buckleupamerica.org or for State of Texas information, please visit http://www.buckleuptexas.com/clickit/default.asp.