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SALT LAKE CITY — In its latest bid to get drivers to buckle up, the Utah Department of Public Safety turned to children’s drawings Tuesday in hopes they would encourage people to be safe over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
“We had local kids draw a picture of their favorite family member, their favorite friend that they hoped to see at the dinner table for Thanksgiving dinner, and we aren’t going to get there unless we buckle up,” said Jason Mettmann with the Utah Highway Safety Office.
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The pictures were placed around a hypothetical holiday dinner table and depicted people like “mom,” “dad,” and “my sister.”
One seat was left open with a handwritten sign that said, “All I want for Christmas is you. Buckle up.” Officials said the seat memorialized those who didn’t make it home for the holidays because they didn’t wear seat belts.
Officials said the display was part of a push toward greater seat belt use, as was a seat belt enforcement campaign planned from Nov. 26 to Dec. 1 involving more than 230 extra shifts between roughly three dozen law enforcement agencies in the state.
Troopers shared stories with reporters about fatal crashes they had encountered that forever resonated with them.
“I do remember my very first death investigation that was 20 years ago here in the Salt Lake Valley that was tied to a rollover crash,” recalled Utah Highway Patrol Maj. Chamberlin Neff. “The driver was not seat-belted in and was actually ejected through the sunroof, and the passenger who was restrained actually was able to come right out and walk out.”
According to state statistics, out of 225 fatal crashes as of Nov. 20, 43 involved unrestrained people, resulting in 48 deaths.
While those numbers were down from this time last year, officials said an observational survey showed seat belt use was trending in the wrong direction.
According to the survey, the seat belt use rate in Utah in 2025 was 89.6%, down from 90.7% in 2024 and from the high of 92.4% in 2023.
Mettmann attributed the decline in part to a complex of risk-taking behaviors on the road that has been on the rise since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We see that these risk-taking behaviors go together,” Mettmann said. “Those who don’t’ buckle up will often speed, they will often road rage, they will often get caught up in these other traffic safety behaviors that affect fatalities on our roads. These things all go together, so buckling up is that first step you can make before even starting up the car to make sure you’re going to be safe.”
