Click It or Ticket

History

Before 1980, usage of seat belts in the United States lingered around 11 percent despite volunteer and educational campaigns at the local, county, and state levels. Between 1980 and 1984, individual organizations, public education programs, incentives and policy changes strove to increase the use of seat belts. However, these efforts failed to significantly affect usage in large, metropolitan areas, and in by the end of the effort, national seat belt usage had reached only 15 percent.

In 1984, New York became the first state to enact a mandatory seat belt use law, and by 1990 37 other states had followed suit. The vast majority of these laws were "secondary safety belt laws", meaning that an officer had to observe another traffic violation before issuing a citation for a seat belt infraction. Despite this, the national usage rate climbed from 15 to 50 percent.

Campaign methods

The national television ad [airing] on several major networks features people driving in several regions of the country without their safety belts on. In all cases, they receive a ticket and then buckle up. The ads [appear] primarily in programs that deliver large audiences of teens and young adults—especially men. The programs include Fear Factor, WWE Smackdown, Major League Baseball, NBA Conference Finals, NASCAR Live, and the Indy 500.

However, the campaign is also stressing strict enforcement of safety belt laws. In particular, the "Primary safety belt laws", which allow law enforcement officers issue a safety belt citation without observing another offence, are stressed. Nineteen states have primary safety belt laws, and on average 88 percent of people in these states use safety belts as opposed to 79 percent nationally.

New Hampshire, the state with the lowest safety belt usage, has no adult safety belt law. Massachusetts, the state with the second lowest usage, has only a secondary safety belt law, which requires officers to observe another driving offense before issuing a safety belt citation. Enforcement of safety belt laws of both types is to be made possible by checkpoints and saturation patrols that will detect violations of safety belt and child passenger safety laws.

Success of Click It or Ticket

The campaign has met with success so far. A survey conducted by Public Opinion Strategies found that 83 percent of 800 United States citizens surveyed had seen, read, or heard about the Click It or Ticket campaign. Additionally, 81 percent of the public supports the effort.

Figures released by the U.S. Department of Transportation after amplifying the advertising and enforcement campaign in May 2003 indicated that "National belt use among young men and women ages 16-24 moved from 65 percent to 72 percent, and 73 percent to 80 percent, respectively, while belt use in the overall population increased from 75 percent to 79 percent."

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