Click It or Ticket: 60 Wreaths Commemorate 60 Lives That Could Have Been Saved as Enforcement Period Begins

The May Mobilization Click It or Ticket enforcement period is on. From May 22 through June 4, the Colorado State Patrol and statewide law enforcement agencies are conducting a heightened enforcement and awareness campaign targeting unbuckled or improperly restrained vehicle occupants.

Last year, this enforcement period resulted in 5,983 seat belt citations—including 295 citations for unbuckled or improperly restrained children younger than 15.

In 2016, there were 180 unrestrained passenger-vehicle fatalities in Colorado, and approximately 60 of those lives could have been saved with 100 percent seat belt use across the state.

To draw attention to the lives lost, 60 memorial wreaths in bright traffic-yellow paint were installed at Bandimere Speedway to share the message to buckle up—not only for ourselves, but for our loved ones.

Holger Forrest experienced this pain first hand; his 17-year-old daughter Mackenzie was in a fatal car crash last year, and a seat belt would have saved her life. Forrest advocates for seat belts strongly because he knows, tragically, how important it is to buckle up. The wreaths represent more than statistics; they represent real lives lost.

Despite Colorado's seat belt law, 16 percent of Coloradans still choose to remain unbuckled. In addition to the wreath memorial, the Click It or Ticket campaign is raising seat belt awareness through statewide gas pump toppers, radio, window clings, and a paid social campaign—in addition to the wreath installation. The ads feature photos of severely wrecked vehicles from real Colorado crashes where the drivers and passengers survived likely because they were wearing their seat belts.