Thursday, March 23, 2017

Click it or Ticket starts Today!

MESA COUNTY, Colo - The Mesa County Sheriff's Office is stepping up seat belt enforcement next week as part of a nationwide campaign to save lives.

Beginning Monday, extra deputies will be patrolling the streets looking for people not wearing their seat belts. If you are caught not buckled up you will get a ticket! The minimum fine is $65 per violation.

In 2014, 156 people who weren’t wearing a seat belt died in traffic crashes in Colorado. If everyone had buckled up, nearly half of those people would be alive today.

Right now Colorado is behind the national average of the number of people who wear seat belts. Across the country 90.1% of Americans buckle up, but only 85.2% of Coloradans wear their seat belt!!! Even less, 77.6%, buckle up when riding in a truck!! We can do better!!

Not only is buckling up the law, it saves lives. Having an unbuckled passenger increases your risk of being hurt or killed by 40%. Do you want to take that chance? 

Click It or Ticket is a nationwide campaign from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Since Click It or Ticket started in Colorado in 2002 seat belt use in Colorado has increased from 72% to 85.2%.