Police departments across the state increased patrols this week to catch drivers and their passengers who aren’t buckled up.
The Texas Department of Transportation launched its annual “Click It or Ticket” campaign Monday.
According to TxDot more than 2,300 vehicle crashes involving unrestrained occupants resulted in 889 fatalities and 1,854 serious injuries last year.
If those statistics and the traffic tickets aren’t enough to get people to strap in, Mike Myers hopes his story is.
The father of three girls, Myers made sure his daughters knew how to change a flat tire, replace a car battery and always had a First Aid kit in the car.
Still, Myers said he always worried when his oldest made the six-hour drive from Lubbock to Austin.
“She talked us into it,” Myers said. On the tail end of her freshman year at Texas Tech University, Elana Myers was eager to return home to accept a summer modeling job and celebrate her sister’s birthday.
“We always told her no,” but this time Elana insisted.
“She said you know, ‘daddy it’s okay. I’ll come home. I can do this,'” said Myers.
Elana got on the road to make the drive from Lubbock to Austin on a Wednesday in April of 2014. “That afternoon we were waiting for Elana and instead we had a State Trooper come to the door,” Myers said.
His daughter did not make it home that day, Elana would return never home again.
Elana died in a single-car crash about 45 minutes outside of Lubbock.
According to the accident report, investigators believe Myers veered into the center median and over-corrected, sending the car off an embankment, rolling down into a ditch.
“I could not be there when she needed me the most. I cannot even begin to describe the pain of knowing that I could not help her,” Myers said.
Elana was not wearing a seat belt, the 18-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.
“It just takes a couple seconds and everything can be gone,” Myers said. The difference a couple seconds can make is something
It only takes a couple of seconds to buckle up and Myers can’t help but wonder if his daughter would still be here today had she put on a seat belt.
The Public Information Officer for TxDot, Chris Bishop said, “It’s the simplest and most effective way that people can save their own lives and minimize injuries if they were ever in a car crash.”
Since Texas joined the national “Click It or Ticket” movement in 2002 seat belt use increased roughly 30 percent in the state.
The most recent numbers from TxDot show more than 90 percent of drivers buckle up on Texas roadways. Those numbers are good, Bishop said, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.
“About half of all the drivers who are killed in crashes are unbelted, that means they’re unprotected,” said Bishop.
In the two years since her death, Elana has missed many birthday celebrations, along with modeling jobs and even more milestones to come. Myers said, “She was a beautiful daughter, she was a great friend, a wonderful sister.”
Myers’ two youngest daughters will grow up without their big sister and he will grow old without his child.
“We think of Elana every hour of every day,” Myers said, “we miss her tremendously, every day is hard.”
Elena never got the opportunity to learn from her mistake, Myers said, but he hopes others do.
To preserve his daughter’s memory and to protect another family from tragedy, he asks drivers who need a reminder or a reason to buckle up to think of Elana.
Myers said, “She would want to make sure that you came home safe as well. It’s just what Elana would do.”
TxDOT’s “Click It or Ticket” campaign runs all across the state from May 23rd through June 5th.
Drivers who fail to wear a seat belt face a fine of up to $200.Fines rise to $250 for parents who do not put children younger than eight or under 4’9″ tall in a booster seat.