The Eugene Police Department is reminding drivers about the lifesaving benefits of wearing a seat belt this spring, during the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s national Click It or Ticket high-visibility safety effort. The national seat belt campaign, which coincides with the Memorial Day holiday, runs from May 24 to June 6, 2021.
“We need to emphasize the importance of buckling up, because we still come across drivers and passengers from time to time who are not wearing their seat belt, “ said Traffic Safety Supervisor Sergeant Shawn Marsh. “It’s the simplest thing you can do to limit injuries during a crash, and potentially save your life.”
For this year’s Click It or Ticket seat belt mobilization effort, NHTSA is asking all states to participate in the kickoff event, Border to Border (B2B), a one-day, 4-hour national seat belt awareness event on May 24 that is coordinated by participating state highway safety offices and their respective law enforcement liaisons. The B2B program aims to increase law enforcement participation by coordinating highly visible seat belt enforcement and providing seat belt fact sheets for drivers at heavily traveled, highly visible state border checkpoints.
According to NHTSA, in 2019, there were 9,466 unbuckled passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in the United States. In that same year, 55 percent of passenger vehicle occupants killed at night (6 p.m.–5:59 a.m.) were not wearing their seat belts. That’s why one focus of the Click It or Ticket campaign is nighttime enforcement. Participating law enforcement agencies will be taking a no-excuses approach to seat belt law enforcement, writing citations day and night. In Eugene, the maximum penalty for a seat belt violation is $150.
For more information on the Click It or Ticket mobilization, please visit www.nhtsa.gov/ciot.
Oregon Department of Transportation Seatbelts and Child Seats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFC2K2AfdJM
More ODOT information on safety belts and child seats at: http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TS/Pages/safetybelts.aspx