Seatbelt Sheriff spreads Clunk Click message
A SIX-year-old boy who is featured in a revived advertising campaign to encourage seatbelt use has teamed up with a road safety mascot to spread the message at his school near Ripon.
Nathaniel Todd, who is featured in one of the 'Clunk Click Every Trip' posters promoted by the 95 Alive York and North Yorkshire Safety Partnership, welcomed the county council's mascot, Seatbelt Sheriff, to a special assembly at Sharow Primary School.
The Clunk Click slogan was first made famous when it was launched by Sir Jimmy Savile for the Department for Transport in the 1970s and the 83-year-old veteran broadcaster is supporting the revival of the campaign.
'trouble'
"Most accidents in cars occur within the first mile and a quarter of a journey, which means that if you don't belt up straight away you could be in trouble just round the corner," he said.
"Clunk click every trip is a good idea because it would take only ten seconds to mush your face up but it would take a hospital ten years to put it back together."
The 95 Alive campaign promotes its message to children by sending the Seatbelt Sheriff into schools to get the youngsters to think about the importance of wearing a seatbelt on every journey and to remind their parents and other adults to do the same.
young deputies
Seatbelt Sheriff has already visited more than 40 schools in the county and sworn in 3,500 pupils as his deputies.
The law made it compulsory to wear a seatbelt in 1983 but a recent survey carried out in North Yorkshire on more than 8,300 vehicles showed the percentage of people using seatbelts was down compared with a similar exercise two years ago.
A breakdown of the figures reveals the number of drivers not wearing a seat belt had increased from 3.9 to 4.1 per cent, while the number of adult passengers not restrained also rose – from 5.8 to 6.1 per cent.
A similar percentage of youngsters, 4.6 per cent, were also found not belted up but this was an improvement on two years ago when more than double that rate, 11.3 per cent, were discovered not wearing a seatbelt.
'astounded'
Insp Dave Brown, of North Yorkshire roads policing, said: "After nearly 30 years of attending road traffic collisions, I am still astounded at the number of people who refuse or fail to wear a seatbelt.
"The impact of being unrestrained and thrown forward is devastating. I have lost count of the lives saved by the simple practice of wearing a seatbelt, which takes just a few seconds."
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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