All across the country, including here in Fairfield County, law enforcement and local government officials are taking part in “Click It or Ticket,” created to enforce the state’s safety belt laws. Beginning Monday, May 24th through June 6th—from check points in Greenwich, to unmarked cars in Westport, police are out in force to make sure you’re wearing your seat belts.
The subject is especially poignant for Darien business owner, Tom Geary, proprietor of Geary Gallery on Boston Post Road. Together with his wife Anne, the couple has been active in the community, bringing attention to the importance of the lives that seat belts can save.
Last Thursday, Mr. Geary was a featured speaker at the Connecticut Dept. of Transportation Headquarters to help kick off the 2010 “Click It or Ticket” campaign. The kick-off also featured Lieutenant Governor Michael Fedele and officials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Federal Highway Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Connecticut Department of Public Safety, Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles, Connecticut Department of Transportation, and local law enforcement, as well as visual displays, child safety seat demonstrations, a Safety Belt simulator and Rollover simulator to unveil the campaign.
Mr. Geary was asked to speak due to his family’s founding and leadership of the “Click It for Cassie” campaign that features its popular seat-belt shaped bumper stickers. In 2008, the Geary’s 17-year-old daughter, Cassie lost control of her car in bad weather and was killed due to blunt trauma injuries because she wasn’t wearing her seat belt. If she had been, police told him, she would have walked away with just a bump on her head. The Geary family has been actively involved in bringing the importance of wearing seatbelts to drivers, especially young ones, as statistics show that motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 15 and 34. The bumper sticker is their attempt to slow down this senseless loss of life from not wearing seatbelts.
The Geary’s family mission has been to help save lives, and the “Click It for Cassie” campaign may have done just that already. Last year when four of Cassie’s classmates from Trinity Catholic High School in Stamford rolled over in their SUV, none had more than minor injuries. They were active in the “Click It for Cassie” campaign in the memory of their friend.
In his speech at the Department of Transportation on Thursday, Geary stated, “If our seatbelt awareness campaign helps just one person walk away from an otherwise deadly accident, it makes us feel that Cassie is working with us and did not die in vain.”
Starting Monday, May 24th, the “Click It or Ticket” initiative mobilizes law enforcement throughout Fairfield County and the country including Memorial Day weekend. On June 19th, the Geary family will hold the Second Annual “Click It for Cassie” Softball tournament at Calf Pasture in Norwalk. The public is invited to cheer for one of the ten local teams and enjoy hotdogs, hamburgers and all kinds of baked goods made by several of Cassie’s friends. For more information or to make a donation to the foundation in Cassie’s name, visit www.clickitforcassie.com.
