Fountain police want to reward you for clicking your seat belt

Every year, thousands of people are killed in car crashes around the nation.

This week, Fountain police are trying to make that number a little bit smaller.

“My name is Joey with the police department. I see that you’ve got your seat belt on and I want to thank you so much for doing your part. Here’s a free T-shirt.”

Officer Jose Barraza of the Fountain police department is trying to do something about an alarming statistic. He’s also getting a sense of satisfaction at the same time.

“It’s a pleasant feeling knowing that we’ve impacted their lives,” said Barraza.

You can just imagine the reaction officer Barraza gets when he summons people to give them a shirt.

“We get that surprise face,” he said.

The real surprise is how many people don’t put on their seat belts: about one-fifth of all drivers in El Paso County.

Nationwide about 43,000 people are killed in auto crashes.

That’s about 10 percent of the population of Colorado Springs killed every year. And most of it is preventable.

According to Maile Gray of Drive Smart Colorado, “you always want to be prepared. The main way you can be sure to be safe is to make sure that every single person in the car is buckled up every time.”

Thanks to programs like this one, people do seem to getting the message.

“I think the word is getting around nowadays that the use of the seat belt saves lives,” said Barraza.

If you want to increase your chances of surviving a crash, then clicking your seat belt should be the first thing that you do before you go anywhere.

Fountain police will be handing out free shirts all week as part of their Buckle Up for Safety and Lives program.