If you’re the type of Ohio motorist who always buckles up and never needs reminding to do so, good for you. If you’re not, you might soon get reminded.
And ticketed. And acquainted once again with that catch phrase that issues annually at just about this time nationally each year: Click it or ticket.
Safety regulators estimate that more than 60 percent of all people who die in car accidents in Ohio each year were not wearing seat belts at the time their fatal crash occurred. That sad fact is all that traffic enforcement officials in the state say they need to motivate them to aggressively enforce seat belt laws during the annual Click it campaign.
Officials strongly imply that they’re not trying to be motorists’ friends during the annual mobilization, which commences today and runs through June 20. More importantly, they’re trying to save lives.
To do so, they note that more than 900 Ohio “law enforcement partners” will be teaming up across the state to enforce the initiative, with the key thing for drivers to note being that the enforcement will be aggressive. It’s a tight time window to make a point, and safety authorities seem fully ready to make the most of it.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) states that, nationally, more than half of all persons killed in car crashes weren’t belted up. As Ohio-relevant numbers indicate, that figure is even higher for accidents in the state.
“It’s simple — safety belts save lives and reduce injury in crashes,” says Ohio State Highway Patrol Superintendent Colonel John Born.
Source: Pike County Daily, “Patrol warns motorists to wear a safety belt — Click it or ticket,” May 17, 2013