TOP SAFETY AGENCY TEAMS UP WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT IN 50 STATES TO REDUCE MEMORIAL DAY CRASHES |
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National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
May 23, 1997
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 23, 1997
NHTSA 33-97
Contact: Tim Hurd
Tel. No. (202) 366-9550
TOP SAFETY AGENCY TEAMS UP
WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT IN 50 STATES
TO REDUCE MEMORIAL DAY CRASHES
Continuing President Clinton's effort to increase safety on the nation's highways, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater today announced that the department's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in concert with the Air Bag Safety Campaign, has teamed up with law enforcement authorities across the nation for Operation C.A.R.E. (Combined Accident Reduction Effort) during the Memorial Day weekend.
"I want to encourage all who are traveling during this holiday weekend to pay special attention to safety and, if they are using the highways, to buckle up," Secretary Slater said. "Historically, there have been nearly 500 traffic fatalities in the United States each year during Memorial Day weekends. All are preventable. This weekend's effort by law enforcement officers in every state will help reduce the number of these tragedies."
NHTSA Administrator Ricardo Martinez, M.D., said that state police and highway patrols in all 50 states will be working cooperatively with local law enforcement authorities as part of a nationwide effort to enforce safety belt and child safety seat laws. Officers also will step up patrols in search of speeding, drunk and aggressive drivers.
According to Col. Fred Mills, national chairman of Operation C.A.R.E. and superintendent of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the number one priority during this long holiday weekend is to help make driving safer for everyone.
Operation C.A.R.E. will feature special teams of officers on "high visibility" patrols in support of the Air Bag Safety Campaign's "Operation ABC: Mobilizing America to Buckle Up Children." Operation ABC ("Air Bag Safety: Buckle Everyone; Children in the Back") began this month as part of an unprecedented campaign to increase correct use of child safety seats and compliance with safety belt laws.
Operation ABC is intended to generate national support for President Clinton's plan to increase national safety belt use to 85 percent by the year 2000, and 90 percent by 2005. The plan also calls for a 15 percent reduction in the number of child occupant fatalities by the year 2000 and 25 percent, by 2005.
NHTSA also is working with law enforcement agencies nationwide to help these stepped up patrols address the increasing problem of aggressive driving on the nation's highways. The focus of this campaign is to stress the lifesaving benefits of safety belt use as the best protection against the dangers from aggressive drivers.
Operation C.A.R.E. officially begins at 6 p.m. EDT May 23, marking the official beginning of the summer driving season, and continues until midnight, May 26. The special enforcement efforts of Operation C.A.R.E. will be repeated during the July 4th holiday weekend and during the Labor Day weekend.