U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta will be in Louisville during the Mid-America Trucking Show next week to kick off the Be Ready-Be Buckled campaign

to encourage professional truck drivers to use seat belts.
Details of the campaign and results of study of driver attitudes on safety belts and motor carriers' safety belt best practices will be announced at a breakfast for approximately 150 truck drivers and their families attending the Mid-America show. The event is set for 9 a.m, Friday, April 1, at the Mary Room, Executive West Hotel, 830 Phillips Lane, Louisville, Ky.
The event will also be attended by Annette Sandberg, administrator, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, truck drivers Wayne Crowder, FedEx Freight, Louisville; National Champion driver Steve Fields, Yellow Transportation, Kansas City, Mo.; Carol Ann Schlussler, Baldwin, Wisc., leased to Dart Transit Trucking industry leaders and Bill Mack, XM Satellite Radio
The even announcement noted that in 2003, 309 of the 620 commercial vehicle drivers killed in crashes were not wearing safety belts. This tragedy prompted Secretary Mineta to form the Commercial Vehicle Safety Belt Partnership.
Be Ready-Be Buckled is intended to dispel trucker myths over safety belts, to promote increased truck driver usage and bring them up to par with their car-driving counterparts.