“Drive safe.”  

It’s something we say to friends as they depart. It carries an implicit care for each other. Before the car even starts moving, driving safe means putting on a seatbelt, and most of us do just that.

In Jefferson County, 93 percent of us wear our seatbelts, according to a 2019 observational survey. But in a five-year study from 2012 through 2016, 16 percent of traffic fatalities in our county were people who weren’t wearing a seatbelt. That’s 19 lives lost in our community; deaths that may have been prevented with a seatbelt.

I know almost everyone reading this already wears their seatbelt, so I encourage you to do two more things: Make sure that anyone who rides with you buckles up, and if someone tells you they don’t wear a seatbelt, kindly let them know why you wear yours.

Your reason might not be exactly the same as mine, but I bet it’s similar. We wear seatbelts to keep ourselves safe, to make sure we get home to our loved ones, and to be there for people who depend on us. Wearing a seatbelt is what happens when we care about each other. And we can all use a little more of that.

Josh Ley
Clallam and Jefferson County Target Zero Manager