Click it or Ticket
May 20, 2019
Buckling your seat belt should be automatic. It should be the first thing done when you get in the car. Seat belt use should be as ingrained as tying your shoes or brushing your teeth. Still, nearly 10 percent of drivers and passengers go without their seat belts. As law enforcement officers, it is our greatest wish to spread the message about the importance of seat belt use, and remind people that seat belt use isn’t just a suggestion, it’s the law. Between 2013 and 2017, seat belts saved just over 69,000 lives in the United States.
From May 20 to June 2, 2019, the Tallahassee Police Department is joining the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for the 2019 Click It or Ticket enforcement mobilization. We will be out in full force, cracking down on seat belt violations and issuing citations to anyone caught traveling without a buckled seat belt or transporting unrestrained children. Our law enforcement officers are working to spread the message that seat belts save lives. In Tallahassee the maximum penalty for a seat belt violation is $123.00.
May is a critical month for law enforcement agencies to target unbuckled drivers. With the Memorial Day holiday weekend marking the official start to summer, there will surely be thousands more families traveling the roads to their vacation destinations. We have found this to be the most effective time to remind drivers why seat belt laws matter—they help save lives. This is not a campaign to write tickets or train law enforcement. This is a campaign to help keep people safe and alive. We see the casualties of not wearing a seat belt, and we do not wish that devastation on anyone.
Each year, too many people die as a result of refusing to buckle their seat belts. The numbers must change. The behavior is too simple. Just a click of the seat belt. Do not just buckle up to avoid a ticket—our friends’ and families’ lives in Tallahassee are more important than that. But if you are caught driving while unbuckled, you will get a ticket—no excuses, no warnings. Wearing your seat belt is required by law. Day and night, front seat and back, Click It or Ticket.
You can find out more about the Click It or Ticket mobilization at www.nhtsa.gov/ciot.
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