Arturo Meneses Killed in Franklin County Automobile Accident

Alabama’s lenient, almost non-existent seat belt laws have claimed yet another young life.

Alabama State troopers said Arturo Meneses , a student at Tharptown High School was killed and another person was injured in an automobile accident that occurred around at 4 a.m. Saturday March 7, 2015 on Franklin 48 in the Tharptown community east of Russellville. Jacob Bynon, 17, of Russellville, a passenger in the car, was taken to Huntsville Hospital. His condition is stable.

Meneses 18, was driving a 2006 Toyota Camry failed to negotiate a curve, lost control, flipped and hit a tree, and was pronounced dead at the scene. Franklin County Coroner Elzie Malone stated, “It looked like he was thrown through the windshield of the car”. Meneses body was found in a shallow ditch, 20-30 feet from the car.

Police said that the driver who was ejected from the car was not wearing a seatbelt. Alabama State Troopers are still looking into the accident.

Yes this is becoming a little redundant, but as long as the failure to use one’s seatbelt is responsible for the death of one of our citizens I feel it is morally irresponsible to ignore it. Our laws need to be changed so that seat belt enforcement is elevated from secondary to primary status. . Rates of seat belt use are 9 percentage points higher in primary enforcement states than secondary states. In addition to more aggressively enforcing the law, public awareness campaigns should be implemented like the “Click it or ticket” initiative. The state of Delaware is an excellent example of how such a program can save lives.

“Over the past two weeks, officers from approximately 30 State, County, and municipal law enforcement agencies issued a total of 1,010 citations to unbuckled motorists during the 12th annual Click It or Ticket campaign. The enforcement portion of the campaign ran from May 13th through 27th and involved traffic safety checkpoints and saturation patrols both day and night along with Border to Border enforcement collaboration of police agencies.” Delaware has achieved a seat belt compliance rate of over 90% and using a seat belt decreases your risk of being seriously injured or killed in a crash by approximately 50%.

For more complete information on the successful enforcement of seat belt laws in Delaware, please visit: http://news.delaware.gov/2013/06/07/2013-click-it-or-ticket-enforcement-results/

More complete information on seat belt statistics is also available at http://www.cdc.gov/Motorvehiclesafety/seatbeltbrief/