The gift of love - Buckle up

Buckle Up Montana

Keeping yourself and your loved ones safe is the best gift you could give to anyone. As a driver, it is your responsibility to make sure your loved ones and yourself are buckled up.

Using your seat belt is one of the easiest most useful ways to stay safe in a vehicle.

If one person is not buckled, then everyone in the vehicle is at risk.

In all, 73 percent of the motor vehicle fatalities in Montana, in 2012, were not wearing seat belts.

Montana Department of Transportation’s new campaign motto is “Vision Zero.”

They are working to get the motor vehicle fatality rate to zero.

If we all take responsibility for ourselves and our passengers, this can become a reality.

Montana has only a secondary law on buckling up for adults, but there is a primary law for children under 6 years old and 60 pounds. Law or not, we need to take responsibility.

When you are the driver, people are putting their trust and life in your hands. We cannot avoid all crashes, but we can do our best to protect ourselves and our passengers by buckling up.