Click It or Ticket

Click It or Ticket is a high visibility enforcement program designed to raise safety belt usage and save people from death and serious injury on the streets and highways. During 2008, Click It or Ticket will begin May 12, 2008 and conclude June 8, 2008.

The program will use educational radio messages recorded personally by chiefs and sheriffs, along with stepped-up enforcement, to send a strong message that safety belts save lives.

The Click It or Ticket campaign is currently used in 18 other states and the District of Columbia. In other Click It or Ticket campaigns, the occupant restraint usage rate increased by more than 10 percent, meaning that thousands of previously unbuckled drivers and passengers began using safety belts and child safety seats.

The campaign consists of strict enforcement, strong educational messages in the form of ads on most radio stations in the area, and numerous public appearances by officers on behalf of the program.

Virginia's statewide safety belt compliance rate is currently 79.9 percent. The goal of 2008 Click It or Ticket is to raise the rate to at least 82 percent.

“Click It or Ticket” Launched to Boost Teen Seat Belt Use – And to Save Lives

• Motor vehicle crashes are now the leading cause of death for 15-to-20-year-olds in America.

• According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 7,460 drivers ages 15 to 20 were involved in fatal crashes in 2005. In fact, during 2005, more than one in ten (or 12.6 percent) of all drivers involved in fatal crashes across the U.S. were drivers between the ages of 15 and 20.

• In those fatal crashes, 3,467 of the young drivers were killed; 2,171 passengers in the vehicles with the young drivers were killed; and 2,555 others were killed.

• In America, 15-to-20-year-olds account for only 8.5 percent of the population but accounted for 14 percent of the total number of traffic fatalities.

• Most of the fatalities involving young drivers are the young drivers themselves and their passengers.

• One of the biggest reasons for high teen driver and passenger fatalities is low seat belt use among teens.

• In fact, an alarming 62 percent of teenage passenger vehicle occupants killed in fatal crashes during 2005 were NOT wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash.  

• Alcohol use among teens is also a factor.  In 2005, 23 percent of the young drivers ages 15 to 20 who were killed in crashes had blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels of .08 or higher at the time of the crash, despite the fact that the minimum drinking age in every state is 21.

• Regular seat belt use is the single most effective way to protect people and reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes.

• Nationally in 2005, 77 percent of the passenger vehicle occupants who were in a fatal crash and who were buckled up, survived the crash.

• When worn correctly, seat belts have proven to reduce the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent – and by 60 percent in pickup trucks, SUVs and mini-vans.

• Yet nearly one in five Americans (19 percent nationally) still fail to regularly wear their seat belts when driving or riding in a motor vehicle.

Drivers at Night, Young Males, and Pickup Truck Drivers Those Least Likely to Buckle Up and At Greatest Risk

• According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2005, 15,294 passenger vehicle occupants died in traffic crashes between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 5:59a.m.

• Fifty-nine percent of those killed were NOT wearing their seat belts at the time of the crash. That percentage is considerably higher than the 44 percent of passenger vehicle occupants who were unrestrained and killed during daytime hours.

• Men – especially younger men – are much less likely to buckle up. In 2005, 67 percent of male drivers and 74 percent of male passengers between the ages of 18 and 34 in passenger vehicles who were killed in crashes were NOT wearing their seat belts at the time of the fatal crash.

• According to NHTSA, pickup truck drivers and passengers, particularly among young males, consistently have the lowest seat belt usage rates of all motorists.

• In 2006, the observed seat belt use rate in pickup trucks was only 74 percent compared to 82 percent in passenger cars and 84 percent in vans and SUVs.
  

• This lack of seat belt use is deadly. In 2005, 68 percent of pickup truck drivers and 71 percent of pickup truck passengers who were killed in traffic crashes were not buckled up.

• One of the deadliest outcomes in any vehicle crash occurs when passengers get ejected from the vehicle – with most ejections coming from failure to wear seat belts.

• In fact, 75 percent of passenger vehicle occupants who were totally ejected from their vehicle in 2005 were killed.  But only one in 100 drivers and passengers in fatal crashes who were wearing their seat belts were totally ejected.

• Motorists can increase the odds of survival in a rollover crash in a light truck by nearly 80 percent by wearing their seat belt.