UNBELTED MOTORISTS
More than 50 percent of roadway deaths in the Kansas City region involve occupants that are not wearing safety belts at the time of impact. Safety belt usage in the region is below national levels. Failure to buckle up can cost you money or increase your risk of death or injury in the event of a crash. Other occupant protection issues — such as correctly installed child passenger safety seats and booster seats are important to protecting the region’s most precious cargo, children. Proper use of safety belts by drivers and passengers is one of the best ways to prevent death and injury in a traffic crash. All non-secured occupants or items pose a threat to everyone in the vehicle when a crash occurs.

• In the Kansas City region in 2006, 55 percent of people who died in crashes weren't wearing seat belts — 87 in Missouri and 33 in Kansas.
• A person is two and-a-half times more likely to survive a crash if he or she is wearing a safety belt (Source: Missouri Safety Center).

AGGRESSIVE DRIVING
Speeding, driving too fast for conditions, and following other vehicles too closely are factors in nearly half of all traffic fatalities in the region. These numbers do not include other aggressive driving behaviors like driving on shoulders, failing to use turn signals, running red lights and provoking other motorists. These behaviors contribute to too many fatalities in the Kansas City region, and the public’s perception is that these driving behaviors are becoming more common.

• According to a National Highway Transportation Safety Administration survey on aggressive driving attitudes and behaviors, more than 60 percent of drivers see unsafe driving by others — including speeding — as a major threat to themselves and their families. More than half admitted to driving aggressively on occasion.
• In 2006 aggressive driving contributed to more than 7,200 injuries on roads in the Kansas City region.

IMPAIRED DRIVING
Nationwide, nearly half a million people are injured in alcohol-related crashes each year. More than 16,000 of them die. That’s one death every 31 minutes. A DUI conviction carries stiff penalties for the offender, but the problem is even more costly to the rest of society. Alcohol-related crashes involving injuries and fatalities cost society more than $136 billion in lost productivity, medical costs, property damage, and other direct expenditures annually.

• Nearly one quarter of all motor vehicle fatalities in the region involve impaired driving.
• It is estimated that three of every 10 Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related traffic crash at some time in their lives (Source: National Highway Transportation Safety Administration).
• Regionally, a total of 63 people were killed and 1,567 were injured in impaired driving crashes in 2006.