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HomeNewsClarksville Police Department to participate in Tennessee's 2015 SAFE Campaign

Clarksville Police Department to participate in Tennessee’s 2015 SAFE Campaign

Clarksville Police Department - CPDClarksville, TN – The Clarksville Police Department will be partnering with the Tennessee Governor’s Highway Safety Office for the 2015 Seatbelts Are For Everyone (SAFE) campaign.

The SAFE campaign is designed to increase seat belt and child passenger safety restraint usage in Tennessee.  Law enforcement agencies are encouraged to participate in the campaign by planning and implementing occupant protection initiatives in their communities.

Last year, Tennessee reached its highest seat belt use rate in history at 87.71%.

“We are excited to see that more people are making the right choice to buckle their seat belt,” said Governor’s Highway Safety Office Director Kendell Poole. “However, historically we’ve seen that approximately fifty percent of our fatalities statewide are unrestrained. This shows us that we still have work to do. Partnering with law enforcement to back up our educational messages is the best way for us to achieve additional increases in seat belt use.”

This is the second year that the Governor’s Highway Safety Office has sponsored this campaign.

Last year yielded the following results:

  • 1,718 child restraint violations
  • 30,147 seat belt citations
  • 773 other seat belt enforcement activities

Lt. Philip Ashby, Traffic Unit Commander of the Clarksville Police Department, said that the use of seatbelts and the proper use of child restraints reduce deaths and injuries in Traffic Crashes. The Traffic Unit will concentrate on enforcing violations during the SAFE Campaign. The CPD also does child restraint inspections on Wednesdays (call 931.648.0656 ext#5362 for an appointment.)

It is vitally important that all drivers and passengers buckle up every trip, every time. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, most fatal crashes happen within 25 miles from home and at speeds of less than 40 miles per hour.

The SAFE campaign will be ongoing now through July 31st. Agencies participating in the voluntary campaign become eligible to win one of the two fully-equipped police vehicles at the Tennessee Law Enforcement Challenge in August.

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