CDOT Encourages Drivers, Passengers To Take 'Lil' Mac Pledge'
GOLDEN, Colo. (CBS4) - Two parents whose child died earlier this year joined Colorado law enforcement officers and officials from the Colorado Department of Transportation on Monday in the launch of a new Click It or Ticket campaign.
The campaign centers around taking the Lil' Mac Pledge. It encourages everyone to wear seat belts while driving in memory of Mackenzie Forrest, the Lakewood High School basketball star who died in a crash on Interstate 70 in the mountains in March. Forrest's nickname was Lil' Mac.
Forrest wasn't wearing a seat belt, and her parents say if she had been she probably would have survived.
"When we saw her car -- saw the top of it was still pretty much intact, where it should be and wasn't crushed in and the sides were barely crushed in -- had she had her seatbelt on, she would've stayed in that car, and she would've been protected," Denise Forrest said.
Holger Forrest told some friends of his daughter's who were present at Monday's news conference that the lesson from Forrest's death is simple.
"You'll all have choices. And as you navigate the world out there, those choices will be yours. There's only one choice really, that you cannot make. It's not a choice, it's a have-to-do. And that's buckle up whenever you're in a vehicle," Forrest said.
CDOT will be running ads on TV and the radio reminding people to buckle up.
Experts say seat belts reduce the risk of death by 45 percent during serious crashes.