Local first responders and public health officials joined forces with UToledo Health on Monday to reinforce the importance of wearing seat belts ahead of the Memorial Day holiday and the upcoming summer travel season.
“It’s such a simple thing to do,” said Dr. Alastair Hoyt, a UToledo Health neurosurgeon. “Every time you get into the car, no matter which position you’re in in the car, just put on your seat belt.”
Dr. Alastair Hoyt, a UToledo Health neurosurgeon, talks about the danger posed by unbelted crashes during a kick off for the annual Click It or Ticket campaign Monday outside UTMC.
Monday’s event, held outside the University of Toledo Medical Center, served as a kickoff for the Click It or Ticket campaign, which encourages seat belt usage and includes an enforcement blitz from now to June 1.
Mandatory seat belt laws have been on the books in Ohio for nearly 40 years, but safety belt usage in the state was only 85% last year. That’s up from an 18-year low in 2022 but remains below the national average.
And trauma surgeons continue to encounter accident victims who chose not to buckle up.
“We definitely see people come in who were unrestrained,” Hoyt said. “Even though they have all the airbags go off, that doesn’t protect them the same way that wearing a seat belt does.”
However, not everyone involved in an unbelted crash makes it to the hospital for treatment.
According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, from 2020 to 2024 more than 2,500 unbelted vehicle drivers and passengers lost their lives in crashes on Ohio roadways, and 64% of individuals killed in crashes last year were not wearing a seat belt that was available to them.
Representatives from UTMC’s trauma and emergency department teams were joined by officials from the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department and several area public safety agencies, including the UToledo Police Department, Toledo Fire and Rescue, the Lucas County Sheriff’s Office and the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Among those who do survive a crash resulting in a serious brain injury, recovery is far from certain.
“When someone’s brain is injured, we don’t have a way of repairing it. It’s like cracking an egg. You can’t uncrack it. All the things we do in the hospital — surgery, medication, intensive treatments — are about preventing the uninjured parts of the brain from becoming injured and allowing people time to heal,” Hoyt said. “The best thing we can do is try to avoid those types of injuries and seat belts are an important part of that.”
In addition to representatives from UTMC’s trauma and emergency department teams, Monday’s event also was attended by officials from the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department and several area public safety agencies, including the Toledo Police Department, Toledo Fire and Rescue, Maumee Fire and EMS, the Lucas County Sheriff’s Office and the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
