Click It or Ticket, May 18 - 31

Seat belts are the most effective safety feature available in vehicles today; but nearly one in five Americans still fail to regularly wear a seat belt when driving or riding in a motor vehicle. The effectiveness is indisputable. In 2007 alone, seat belts saved an estimated 15,147 lives. An additional 5,024 lives could have been saved if seat belts were worn at the time of the crashes.

The number of unbuckled deaths at night is considerably higher than in the morning, which accounts for an alarming 46 percent of unbuckled deaths across the nation.

That’s why UCLA Transportation is promoting the national Click It or Ticket seat belt enforcement mobilization campaign May 18th through May 31st to increase seat belt use and reduce highway fatalities. This year's emphasis is on convincing more motorists to buckle up day and night.

Regular seat belt use is the single most effective way to protect people and reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes. In 2007, 83 percent of people in a fatal crash 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 minivans.

Yet nearly one in five Americans (18% nationally) still fail to regularly wear their seat belt when driving or riding in a motor vehicle, according to NHTSA’s observational seat belt studies.

Stepped-up law enforcement activities will be conducted during the national Click It or Ticket enforcement mobilization campaign. The mobilization is being supported by a projected $7.5 million in paid national advertising and additional advertising in each state to encourage all motorists—especially nighttime drivers—to always buckle up.

Wearing your seat belt costs you nothing, but not wearing it certainly will. So unless you want to risk a ticket or worse, your life, please remember to buckle up day and night.

Click It or Ticket.