I hope that you're having a safe Memorial Day. It's always great to spend time with friends and family. You want to be able to continue doing that? Then please buckle up. Now through June 3, state and local law enforcement agencies across the nation are stepping up enforcement to crack down on motorists who aren’t wearing their seat belts as part of the Click it. Or ticket. campaign. Check out these stats from my friends at the Kansas Department of Transportation!
- More than 150 law enforcement agencies across Kansas will be taking a no-excuses approach to seat belt law enforcement, writing citations day and night.
- The national seat belt enforcement campaign runs concurrent with Memorial Day — one of the busiest travel and holiday weekends of the year.
- Wearing a seat belt is a serious issue.
- Young adults are dying at disproportionate rates because they are not wearing their seat belts.
- In Kansas, 56% of 18- to 34-year old occupants killed in crashes were not wearing their seat belts in 2017.
- Male truck drivers are the lowest single category of belt users (76%).
- Rural counties tend to produce lower belt use rate than urban counties.
- In 2017, seat belt usage in Kansas was 82%, below the national average of 90.1%. Kansas ranks 31st in seat belt usage among all 50 states. Our goal is 100 percent compliance.
- Seat belts and enforcement save lives.
- The Click it. Or ticket. campaign isn’t about citations, it’s about saving lives.
- Our increased enforcement around Memorial Day serves as a reminder that wearing a seat belt is the easiest thing you can do to save your life.
- Seat belts save lives every day. But they only save lives when they are used and there are still many people in Kansas who don’t buckle up.
- From 2014 to 2016, seat belts saved nearly 41,500 lives across the country.
- In 2017, nearly half of the 359 deaths from crashes in Kansas were not buckled (171 deaths.)
- Click it. Or ticket. Day and night.
- Seat belt use is important 24 hours a day, but night time is especially deadly for unbuckled occupants. In 2017, 53% of occupants killed at night were not buckled, compared to 43% of occupants who were killed during the day.
- KDOT wants all Kansans to buckle up every time they get in a vehicle. It’s the law and it can save their lives. Buckle up, every trip, every time.