Click It or Ticket Rural Seat Belt Enforcement Begins Today
STATEWIDE — Colorado has set the goal to reach a seat belt use rate of 84 percent in 2015, an increase of 1.6 percent from Colorado’s 2014 use rate. With this in mind, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), Colorado State Patrol (CSP) and rural law enforcement agencies throughout the state are mobilizing a rural Click It or Ticket seat belt enforcement period, beginning Monday, March 30, and running through Sunday, April 5. The increased enforcement is combined with an education campaign targeting rural drivers, an effort to increase seat belt use and save lives on Colorado’s rural roadways.
In 2013, 177 of the 317 (56 percent) motor vehicle occupants who died in a fatal car crash were not using seat belts or other restraints. During last year’s rural Click It or Ticket enforcement period, 1,723 drivers were cited for seat belt violations — 91 percent of those going to adult drivers over the age of 21. Drivers aged 16 to 20 accounted for 81 seat belt violation citations, only one percent of the total citations during last year’s enforcement period.
“We’re learning that younger generations are actually better seat belt users than their parents,” said Col. Scott Hernandez, Chief of the Colorado State Patrol. “Teenage drivers grow up knowing the importance of seat belts and have formed beneficial seat belt habits from an early age. Getting young adults – especially males - to wear seat belts is a greater challenge.”
The seat belt education campaign includes outreach throughout rural counties — which tend to have the lowest seat belt use rates in the state — through coordination with community-based organizations and local media outlets to increase awareness of the importance of seat belt use. CDOT will also be running radio spots within 14 rural counties that are participating in the enforcement period.
“The Click It or Ticket campaign focuses on speeding and aggressive drivers, however, drivers who are stopped for any traffic violation and are not wearing a seat belt will be ticketed,” said Darrell Lingk, Director of the CDOT’s Office of Transportation Safety. “Clicking a seat belt is a quick and easy way to protect yourself, and your family, from other drivers on the road – including impaired drivers.”
Colorado’s Seat Belt Laws
- · Adults — Colorado has a secondary enforcement law for adult drivers and front-seat passengers. Drivers can be ticketed for violating the seat belt law if they are stopped for another traffic violation.
- · Teens — Colorado’s Graduated Drivers Licensing (GDL) law requires all drivers under 18 and their passengers, no matter what their age, wear seat belts. This is a primary enforcement, meaning teens can be pulled over simply for not wearing a seat belt or having passengers without seat belts.
- · Children — Colorado'
s child passenger safety law is primary enforcement, meaning the driver can be stopped and ticketed if an officer sees an unrestrained or improperly restrained child under age 16 in the vehicle.
In 2012, seat belts saved an estimated 12,174 lives nationwide. An additional 3,031 lives could have been saved if all unrestrained passenger vehicle occupants five and older involved in fatal crashes had been properly restrained. To view seat belt citation data online, visit www.SeatBeltsColorado.
