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ABOUT OUR PROGRAM

Click It or Ticket is a nationwide enforcement campaign designed to increase seat belt use and reduce highway fatalities. The mobilization is conducted annually by the National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA) in conjunction with law enforcement agencies, state highway safety offices, and traffic safety advocates. The campaign encourages all motorists to always buckle up—every time, day and night.

WHY IS THIS CAMPAIGN HAPPENING?

Efforts to get people to wear seat belts began in the late 1960s. When Utah’s secondary seat belt law passed in 1986, only 18% of motorists buckled up. Since that time, the national safety belt use rate has climbed to 84% and Utah’s use rate has increased to 89% in 2010. Sadly, motor vehicle crashes are still the leading cause of death for people ages 2 through 34 in the United States. On an average day in Utah, there are 155 motor vehicle crashes involving nearly 400 people, resulting in 75 injuries and 1 death. The Utah Department of Health estimates that crashes cost more than $94,000,000 in hospital and emergency department charges in 2006. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as these charges do not include costs for rehabilitation, property damage, insurance administration, emergency services, legal and court fees, and costs to employers.

When used correctly, seat belts reduce the risk of injury and death by about 70%, according to the NHTSA. In fact, in 2009, unbuckled motorists were 32 times more likely to die than buckled motorists involved in crashes on Utah’s roadways. Despite improvements in safety restraint laws, aggressive enforcement campaigns, and extensive educational programs, Utah’s seat belt use rate has remained stagnant over the past few years.

WHO STILL ISN’T BUCKLING UP?

Nearly 300,000 Utah motorists still fail to regularly wear their seat belts when driving or riding in a motor vehicle. Research has shown that many people who continue to ride unprotected are risk takers, young, male, nighttime motorists, or are child passengers in vehicles driven by an unbuckled adult.

• According to a University of North Carolina study, unbuckled drivers are more likely to be male, be less educated, have numerous traffic violations (DUI, speeding, etc.), and have no health insurance.
• Young people ages 15 to 24 years old were reported to have the lowest observed seat belt usage rate of any other age group across the nation.
• Nighttime driving is much more dangerous than daytime driving and seat belt use at night is lower. In Utah, people in crashes during the nighttime hours of 10:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. were 2.4 times less likely to wear a seat belt than people in crashes during the rest of the day.
• People who don’t buckle up are less likely to require their children to buckle up. A study conducted by the National Safety Council found that child passengers of adults who were unbuckled were also unbuckled in 75% of the cases.
  

THE GOAL OF THE CAMPAIGN

Changing behaviors can be difficult but safety advocates across the nation are trying to do just that. Innovative campaigns and improved programs are being conducted that target high risk motorists in an effort to reduce death and injury on our roads. Utah’s law enforcement community is on board and will be declaring zero tolerance for unbuckled motorists. They will be looking for impaired drivers and motorists who are speeding and engaging in other unsafe behaviors, along with people in violation of the Safety Belt Use Law, which states that drivers and passengers must wear a safety restraint. The law provides for primary enforcement for individuals up to 19 years of age and requires children to be properly restrained in a child safety seat until eight years of age. For a person age 19 or older, enforcement by an officer can be only as a secondary action when the person has been detained for another offense.

The goal of the campaign is not to give out tickets, but rather to see zero fatalities, fewer injuries, cost savings to taxpayers, and a decrease in the number of high risk drivers on our roads.