Seat belts are the most effective lifesaving feature in a vehicle. However, they only work if you use them and use them correctly.

Nearly one in five Americans still fails to buckle up regularly and too many children still don’t use their seat belts or child safety seats.

In 1998, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration developed “Buckle up America,” a national initiative to increase seat belt use to 85 percent by the year 2000 and to 90 percent by 2005. The use rate was 85 percent in 2010.

You have too much to lose if you don’t buckle up. Using a seat belt will halve your chances of being killed or badly injured in a serious crash, and using the proper age-appropriate car seat will reduce your infant’s chance of fatal injury by 71 percent and your toddler’s by 54 percent.

All states have laws requiring infants and toddlers to ride in car seats, but children still ride unprotected, and the consequences are frightening. According to NHTSA, fully 31 percent of passenger vehicle occupants under age 5 who were fatally injured in crashes in 2009 were riding unrestrained.

Let’s all commit to wearing seat belts on every trip, ensuring that everyone who rides in our cars is buckled up and that all children 12 and younger ride in the back seat in properly installed restraints appropriate for their age and size.

While we cannot always avoid a crash, we can take the responsibility to do everything in our power to protect ourselves and our loved ones.

Buckle up America. Every trip. Every time.

Phil Crowell, police chief, Auburn Police Department