Beginning Monday, Hot Springs police and Arkansas State Police will be partnering with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for a two-week long, stepped-up enforcement campaign targeting motorists not using seat belts.
The Click It or Ticket campaign will continue through June 5, which spans the Memorial Day holiday period, a news release said, involving increased patrols across Arkansas with a "no excuses" approach to enforcement, "writing citations day and night."
"The objective is to change the ways of so many drivers and passengers who never use their seat belts," Col. Bill Bryant, ASP director and the Governor's Highway Safety representative, said in the release. "We want the act of buckling up to become instinctive for everyone any time they get in a car or truck to travel."
As a part of the Click It or Ticket plan for 2022, NHTSA has asked authorities in every state to participate in the kickoff event, Border to Border, a four-hour national seat belt awareness event coordinated by participating state highway safety offices and their respective law enforcement liaisons scheduled for Monday.
The B2B program is intended to increase law enforcement participation by coordinating highly visible seat belt enforcement involving drivers at heavily traveled, highly visible, state border locations.
"During the Click It or Ticket campaign, we'll be working with our fellow law enforcement officers across local and state lines to ensure the message is getting out to drivers and passengers," Bryant said. "Buckling up is the simplest thing you can do to limit injury or save your life in a crash, and it's the law."
According to NHTSA statistics from 2020, there were 10,893 unbuckled passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in the United States. More than twice the number of males died in crashes as compared to females and the use of seat belts was lower among males. More than half the males who died in motor vehicle crashes, 55%, were not wearing a seat belt. Among females who died in crashes during the same reporting period, 43% weren't buckled up.
The 2020 statistical analysis indicates 58% of passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes at night, from 6 p.m. to 5:59 a.m., were not wearing seat belts prompting additional attention by troopers and other law enforcement officers to seat belt enforcement during the evening hours as part of the upcoming campaign.
For more information, visit https://www.nhtsa.gov/campaign/click-it-or-ticket or call the Arkansas Highway Safety Office at 501-618-8136.