BROCKTON — Brocktonians buckle up way less than the state average. A grass-roots campaign aims to change that, complete with a mural and billboards in five languages.
The 74-foot mural features families and friends and promotes the message: "Protect who you love. Buckle up, Brockton." You can see it on the side of Boulangerie Saint Antoine Bakery at 364 N. Main St.
That's right around the corner from where the muralist, Jessica Picanzo, grew up on the North Side. The 2017 Brockton High grad designed the mural with help from Brockton Public Schools and the Cape Verdean Association of Brockton. The whole thing is done in spray paint, said the artist, who continued her studies at Massasoit Community College and is currently at UMass-Dartmouth. You can see an 8-second drone video of the mural here.
The colors and font Picanzo used will carry through on billboards that you'll soon see sprouting up around the city, said Jeff Larason, director of road safety communications for Travelers Marketing. He was in Brockton Thursday for the campaign kick-off with Mayor Robert F. Sullivan and other community leaders.
Brocktonians wear seat belts less than half the time
The need couldn't be more clear. The state average for seat-belt use is 77%, according to the most recent data from the UMass Traffic Safety Research Program. In Brockton, it's 48%.
Larason said project organizers did their own, more in-depth survey and found further cause for alarm. They spent two days observing drivers and passengers in more than 2,500 vehicles around Brockton. They found just 42% of people were buckling up.
Larason knows Bay State transportation issues inside and out, having served as the state's head of highway safety for eight years. The Brockton initiative comes on the theory that the national safety message "Click It Or Ticket" hasn't been resonating since it is enforcement-based.
"Buckle Up, Brockton" takes a different approach. "This is a community-led initiative," Larason said, "in people's own words, own languages, own arts."
The billboards will be in English, Haitian, Cape Verdean, Portuguese and Spanish.
22 traffic deaths since fall 2021
Anyone who has driven, walked or biked through Brockton knows the streets can be dangerous. To take just the block by the mural into account, there were at least 13 crashes at the corner of North Main and West Ashland in the last three years, according to state crash data. Those wrecks include a car hitting a utility pole, a vehicle failing to yield, a car hitting a bicyclist and several sideswipes and rear-endings.
On the other opposite side of the mural, pedestrian Joao Fernandes, 54, died when he was hit by an ice cream truck at Huntington and North Main on Oct. 14, 2021. Since then 21 other people have died in wrecks citywide, according to state crash data.
Later this summer, the plan is to do the survey again and see if the effort has moved the needle on convincing Brocktonians to use their seat belts.
Who's buckling up the most?
Researchers fanned out across the state to eyeball who was wearing their seat belts and who wasn't. Here's what they found:
- Overall, 77% of vehicle occupants appeared to be wearing seat belts. Brockton (48%) came in much lower.
- Judged by apparent sex, women (84%) tended to belt up more than men (71%).
- Looking at apparent age, children (89%) were most likely to be buckled up, then seniors (82%), followed by teens (81%) and adults (76%.)
- Researchers guessed the apparent race of motorists and passengers. About 77% of whites wore seat belts, compared with 76% of Blacks and 65% of Hispanics.
- Drivers and passengers in vehicles with out-of-state plates (82%) buckled up more than those in vehicles with Massachusetts (77%) or New Hampshire (74%) registrations.
Sources: 2022 Massachusetts Safety Belt Usage Observation Study and Jeff Larason.
Send your news tips to reporter Chris Helms by email at CHelms@enterprisenews.com or connect on X at @HelmsNews.
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