Kentucky State Police encourage drivers to buckle up, put phone down

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Kentucky Office of Highway Safety is trying to drive home a safety message to motorists aimed in an effort to prevent crashes.

Kentucky’s Buckle Up/Phone Down campaign runs concurrently with a nationwide awareness and enforcement effort to prevent distracted driving and to encourage folks to wear their seatbelts any time the car is operational.

Over the past decade, distracted driving has become one of the leading causes of vehicle crashes on our nation’s roads.

According to KOHS, each year in Kentucky, distracted driving results in more than 50,000 crashes and approximately 200 deaths.

Preliminary numbers indicate there have been 575 deaths so far in 2020, down 21 from the same time last year.

Approximately 250 of those deaths were of drivers or passengers who were not wearing their seatbelts and more than 100 fatalities involved distraction.