“Click It or Ticket” is an annual nationwide seat belt enforcement mobilization to crack down on low seat belt use and to reduce highway fatalities. It is coordinated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in conjunction with law enforcement agencies and state highway safety offices.
More than 15,000 passenger vehicle occupants died in traffic crashes between the nighttime hours of 6:00 p.m. and 5:59 a.m. during 2005, according to NHTSA – and 59 percent of those passenger vehicle occupants killed were NOT wearing their seat belts at the time of the fatal crash.
The proportion of unbuckled deaths at night is considerably higher than the nearly as alarming 44 percent of passenger vehicle occupants who were not wearing their seats belts and were killed during daytime hours across the nation that same year.
That’s why its important for employers to promote the use of seat belts to their workforce for work hours and after hours. During this high visibility enforcement campaign, during mid-May through Memorial Day, state and local law enforcement and highway safety officials will launch an aggressive national “Click It or Ticket” seat belt enforcement mobilization to crack down on low seat belt use and to reduce highway fatalities – with a new emphasis this year on convincing more motorists to buckle up – day and night.
Buckle down to make sure that all of your employees, in all vehicles, are buckled 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 2005, 77 percent of passenger vehicle occupants in a serious crash who were buckled up, survived the crash, and that 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.
The mobilization is being supported by a projected $10 million in paid national advertising, and additional advertising in each state, to encourage all motorists, but especially motorists at night, to always buckle up.
For more information, visit www.nhtsa.gov/link/ciot.htm.
NETS one-page flyer for workplace distribution |
