The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, the Office of Highway Safety, Kentucky State Police, the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office, the Lyon County Road Department and more have teamed up to launch the Rural High-5 Traffic Safety Initiative.
According to a news release, the project is a data-drive, multi-agency effort to increase seat belt usage and reduce fatalities and serious injury crashes on Kentucky’s rural roads. Kentucky has a high fatality rate on rural roads than the national average—65 percent of crash fatalities happen on rural roads in Kentucky, and roughly 81 percent of Kentucky roads are considered rural.
Lyon County was selected as one of five counties in Kentucky to take part in the program, which will utilize education, engineering and enforcement to reduce crashes in the hope of saving lives.
Proper and regular seat belt usage is the most effective way to reduce deaths and injuries during a crash, yet Kentucky’s usage sits at about 90 percent of the population.