COLUMBUS – Ohio law enforcement agencies have been emphasizing the enforcement of Ohio’s seat belt law and will continue their campaign through the first week of June.
The Click It or Ticket campaign is aimed at the approximately 37 million Americans who still do not buckle up in their vehicles.
“Seat belts, when worn properly, have been proven to reduce the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent and light-truck occupants by 60 percent,” Union County Safe & Sound Coordinator Shawnna Sue Jordan said.
Officials in Franklin, Delaware, Licking and Union counties are among those in central Ohio taking part in the initiative, which coincides with the Memorial Day holiday, one of the busiest travel weekends of the year, and start of the busy summer driving season.
More than 130 Ohio Department of Transportation digital highway message boards will display “CLICK IT OR TICKET” and “BUCKLE UP BUCKEYES” over the holiday.
“Seat belts save lives and everyone – front seat and back, child and adult – needs to remember to buckle up, every trip, every time,” Newark police Chief Barry Connell said.
During the hours between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., the rate of people who are killed in crashes while not wearing seat belts soars to 57 percent, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The number of people killed on Ohio roadways so far in 2017 is 5 percent lower than a this time last years, according to the Ohio Traffic Safety Office.
The national seat belt use rate is currently at 88.5 percent, the NHTSA reported.
In total, seat belts have saved 344,448 lives since 1975, when NHTSA first began recording this data. The agency estimates an additional 381,787 lives could have been saved if all drivers and passengers had been wearing seat belts since then.