The annual Click It or Ticket national campaign started this week and will run through June 2. It’s an effort by law enforcement to ramp up efforts to get people to do something they should do without even having to think about it: Buckling their seat belts. It’s such a simple step to take, one where the facts are sobering:

If every person was properly restrained on every trip, thousands of additional lives could be saved by seat belts each year. Roughly half of the passenger vehicle occupants who are killed on our nation’s roadways are not wearing their seat belts at the time of the fatal crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration. And that number jumps to more than 60 percent for teen and young adults who have not buckled up and died in craches.

It’s just as important to buckle up in the back seat. Too many people wrongly believe they are safe in the back seat unrestrained. Half of all front-seat occupants killed in crashes iare unrestrained, but roughly 60 percent of those killed in back seats were unrestrained.

The vast majority of most people get seat belt safety already. But there are still millions who doesn’t when traveling U.S. roadways.

Regardless of vehicle type, time of day, or seating position, wearing a seat belt is the single most effective way to reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes. If you’re not already buckling up, we urge you to do so. Doing so literally can save your life.


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