MANSFIELD — From May 23 to June 5, 2016, local law enforcement personnel will participate in the national Click It or Ticket campaign in an effort to save lives through increased seat belt use.
This enforcement period comes ahead of the Memorial Day holiday, one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.
The Richland County Safe Communities Coalition is joining with state and local law enforcement officers and highway safety advocates across the country to help save lives by more strongly enforcing seat-belt laws.
According to research conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, while 88.5 percent of passenger vehicle occupants buckled up in 2015, almost 50 percent of occupants of fatal crashes nationwide are not restrained. In some states, the rate is as high as 70 percent unrestrained in fatal crashes.
This fact gravely highlights the need for increased enforcement and awareness of seat belt use.
“Too many drivers and passengers on the road are not wearing their seat belts and it all too often ends in tragedy,” said Reed Richmond, Health Educator at Richland Public Health and a Safe Communities spokesperson. “Sadly, seat belt use is even worse at night.”
In 2014, nearly half of the 21,022 passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes were unrestrained, according to NHTSA. During the nighttime hours of 6 p.m. to 5:59 a.m., that number increased to 57 percent of those killed. Law enforcement agencies will write citations day and night, with a zero-tolerance approach.
“Hundreds of thousands of citizens will be traveling this Memorial Day weekend, as well as throughout the summer vacation season,” Richmond said. “We want to make sure that people are buckling up to keep themselves and their families safe. It is the greatest defense in a vehicle crash.”
Seat Belts Save Lives
Click It or Ticket isn’t about the citations; it’s about saving lives. In 2014, there were approximately 10,500 unbuckled vehicle occupants killed in crashes, or nearly half of all traffic deaths.
Last year, seat belts kept an estimated 12,000 people from dying.
In 2014 in Ohio, there were 1,008 traffic fatalities and in 56% of those seat belts were not used.
For more information on the Click It or Ticket campaign, visit www.nhtsa.gov/ciot.
