Monday, May 20, 2024
Click It or Ticket
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) today launched its annual Click It or Ticket seat belt enforcement campaign, reminding the public to buckle up on every trip and emphasizing seat belt use at night and in rural areas.
This year’s campaign comes as lack of seat belt use — especially at night and in rural areas — continues to be a problem. Despite steady improvements, more than 11,000 passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2022 were unbelted, and 57% of those killed were unbelted in nighttime crashes, according to the most recent data from NHTSA’s National Center for Statistics and Analysis.
State and local law enforcement agencies will work together during a heightened enforcement period from May 20 through June 2 to help keep communities safe and remind drivers of the importance of buckling up.
The campaign also seeks to target seat belt use among passenger vehicle occupants ages 18-34 years old, particularly men within that age group as they are most likely to be involved in a fatal unbelted crash. In 2022, 63% of passenger vehicle occupants ages 18-34 who were killed in nighttime crashes were unrestrained. Among male passenger vehicle occupants ages 18-34 who were killed in nighttime crashes that same year, 66% were not buckled up, compared to 57% of women in that age group.
According to the most recent data from 2022, there were 140 unbelted fatalities in New Jersey, and 39 percent of all motor vehicle occupant fatalities were unrestrained compared to 44 percent nationally. Over the past five years, nearly 16 percent of all unrestrained occupants killed in motor vehicle crashes in New Jersey were between the ages of 20 and 24, compared to 13.5 percent nationally.
In New Jersey, the Division of Highway Traffic Safety (DHTS) announced that 119 law enforcement agencies have received $766,010 to help pay for increased patrols, seat belt checkpoints, and other initiatives during the "Click It or Ticket" campaign. The full grantee list can be found here. Last year, law enforcement agencies participating in the “Click It or Ticket” campaign issued 6,989 seatbelt citations statewide, wrote 2,320 speeding summonses, and made 232 impaired driving arrests. The maximum penalty in New Jersey for a seat belt violation is a $46 fine.
For more information on seat belt safety, please visit NHTSA.gov/SeatBelts