Click It or Ticket It

This year's Click It or Ticket campaign goes from May 21 thru June 3rd. Shown below is a sample editorial for you to use with your court personnel, when speaking to public groups or to publish in a local newsletter or newspaper. I hope that it is helpful. My Best, Hope


Click It or Ticket Goal? Save Lives & Prevent Injuries

We have heard for years that safety belts save lives and prevent injuries. That’s why Texas has had a mandatory safety belt law on the books since 1985. It states that drivers, front seat passengers and children under 17 years old in the front or back seat have to be buckled up. Children under five years old and less than 36 inches tall have to ride in a child safety seat. Period.

Texas is on the brink of its most ambitious campaign ever to remind drivers and passengers to buckle up or pay the consequences. Mega-messages featuring the Click It or Ticket slogan have popped up on landmarks from one end of Texas to the other, including the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, the San Jacinto Monument near Houston, the Fort Worth Stockyards and the Alamo, where state officials buckled a giant safety belt.

Why so much effort? Because it’s a simple fact: safety belts save lives. Safety advocates report that drivers and passengers who buckle up have a 50 percent better chance of surviving a serious traffic collision and avoiding serious injury.

Since the Click It or Ticket campaign began in the Lone Star State five years ago, there have been an estimated 1,200 fewer traffic fatalities in Texas and 28,000 fewer injuries as a result of increased safety belt use. Indeed, the number of Texans complying with state safety belt laws has steadily climbed from 76 percent to slightly more than 90 percent since the Click It or

Ticket effort began in Texas.

Ninety percent is good, but that still leaves one in ten of our friends and family at risk out on the roads. Taking two seconds to buckle up is one of the smartest, safest and simplest things anyone can do; if we just take the time to do it. What’s the most common excuse we hear for not buckling up? “I wasn’t going that far.” Yet, most accidents happen within 25 miles of home.

I encourage families with young children to pay special attention this year. You serve as a role model to your children. Research tells us that children whose parents don’t use seat belts are less likely to buckle up themselves. And teenage drivers have lower seat belt usage than adults – by half. That is just unacceptable.

That is why, from May 21 to June 3, state troopers, police officers and sheriff’s deputies statewide will be stepping up enforcement of the state’s safety belt laws. Drivers, front seat passengers and children under 17, whether riding in the front or back seat, must be buckled up. Also, children under five years old and less than 36 inches tall must ride in child safety seats. Adults who don’t use safety belts or fail to secure their children face fines up to $200, plus court costs.

If safety advantages are not enough to motivate you to buckle up yourself and your loved ones, law enforcement officers will provide an extra incentive—a ticket that can cost you up to $200 per violation.

Click It or Ticket

Click It or TicketNational Enforcement Blitz Launched to Save Lives
Buckling Down on Those Not Buckled Up – Day and Night
Employers: Today is the beginning of the “Click It or Ticket” campaign, a nationwide seat belt enforcement mobilization to crack down on low seat belt use and to reduce highway fatalities. The campaign coordinated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in conjunction with law enforcement agencies and state highway safety offices, will run from May 21 through Memorial Day to June 3rd.
Regular seat belt use is the single most effective way to protect people and reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes. In 2005, 77 percent of passenger vehicle occupants in a serious crash who were buckled up, survived the crash, and 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 minivans. 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.
Support this campaign by communicating to your workforce that seat belt use is a top priority for your organization. Use existing internal dissemination channels (email, intranet, newsletters, supervisors) to send the NETS flyer linked below to all employees. Utilize security officers and parking lot attendants to reinforce the message by printing and distributing the NETS flyer. Click here to download the pdf file.
To further emphasize, your organization’s support of safe driving practices, conduct your own belt use survey to determine your corporate use rate. Recognize and reward those employees wearing their seat belts as they enter employee parking areas. Information on how to conduct a corporate seat belt survey can be found on the NETS website at: http://www.trafficsafety.org/buckle.asp
Network of Employers for Traffic Safety8150 Leesburg Pike, Suite 410Vienna, Virginia 221821.888.221.0045703.891.6005 (Fax)www.trafficsafety.org