No one could have predicted the unplanned impact at the start of this morning's seat belt initiative at Lakeland High School. As TV crews were setting up to broadcast live from the scene, a traffic crash occurred on Bartow Hwy at the entrance to LHS. A student coming to school made a left turn in front of oncoming traffic and collided with another car, which had the right of way.
Once things settled down a bit, a total of 34 traffic citations were issued by LPD officers, with 30 of those for seat belt violations.
Now you may ask if 30 seat belt violations is good or bad - and I will tell you it depends. We issued a higher number of citations during some previous initiatives, so perhaps the educational efforts to buckle up are working. On the other hand, even one violation is one too many. Our goal was to write zero citations, but no such luck today.
And the real irony of the day - the young driver who caused this morning's crash...well he wasn't wearing his seat belt at the time either.
- Asst Chief Bill LePere
With all due respect, The fact that the young driver who caused the crash was not wearing a seat belt has nothing to do with the cause of the crash.
Fact is if I do Not wear my seat belt it will not cause me or any other driver to have a road run off or a crash.
Seat belts help save lives in some crashes, but only after the crash has occured.
When is the State of Florida going to do something about drivers out there not using their turn signals to signal their intent when making turns or changing lanes?
My guess is that this young driver did not use his turn signal before he moved his lethal weapon and since action without visible warning is faster than reaction the inevitable happened because unlike Not wearing seat belts
When drivers do not signal their intent to allow anyone nearby that extra split second of reaction time to react to, more than often the result is a crash or a road run off.
Respectfully, Heather G. Derusha Professional Driver
Posted by: Heather G. Derusha | February 23, 2009 at 01:47 PM
Thanks for making teens aware of the seriousness. Now if only parents would adopt a strict policy like I do: "no belt no ride"... I will not leave my driveway until all belts are fastened and my kids know it. It has become part of who they are.
Posted by: Lakelandmom | February 20, 2009 at 02:39 PM