Click It or Ticket Seat Belt Enforcement Oct. 15-21
Safety Officials Concerned About Teenagers
Law enforcement agencies in Colorado’s 11 most populated counties are out in force now through Oct. 21 to enforce Colorado seat belt laws, announced the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). The enforcement is part of Click It or Ticket, a high visibility seat belt enforcement campaign, and coincides with National Teen Driver Safety Week.
The Click It or Ticket enforcement mobilization is aimed at all drivers who don’t buckle up, especially teenagers. Colorado’s Graduated Drivers Licensing (GDL) law requires all drivers under 18 and their passengers wear seat belts. In Colorado, teens wear seat belts much less frequently than the rest of the population. A recent observational survey shows 72.9 percent of Colorado teens wear seat belts compared to 81.1 percent of adults. According to preliminary data, last year in Colorado 71 teenagers were killed in motor vehicle crashes and 50 of them were unbuckled.
“Too many young lives are cut short simply because they don’t buckle up. We will continue to enforce our seat belt laws because we care about their future,” said Col. Mark Trostel, chief of the Colorado State Patrol. “We encourage teen drivers to make smart driving choices by always buckling up themselves and their passengers. We know seat belts save lives and law enforcement will do its part to remind all drivers to buckle up."
The Colorado State Patrol and 35 law enforcement agencies in Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Denver, Douglas, El Paso, Jefferson, Larimer, Mesa, Pueblo and Weld counties will participate in the enforcement effort. The enforcement mobilization is paid for by a special $600,000 grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to fund four Click It or Ticket enforcement waves and educational outreach to teenagers. The goal is to increase seat belt use and awareness among young Coloradans ages 16 to 20. In addition to the October wave, seat belt enforcement will take place in January, March and May 2008.
The Click It or Ticket campaign includes paid advertising, community outreach through various safety coalitions in Colorado and educational materials provided to high schools in the identified counties. Eleven high schools have been selected to participate in a pledge drive to get students to promise to buckle up every time.
The pledge drive will coincide with the Click It or Ticket enforcement period. Participating schools have agreed to run daily pledge drive activities designed to influence and change teen-driving behaviors. The goal is to obtain 400+ student signatures during the week-long drive. Each classmate signing the pledge will be given memorial bracelets (in honor of the 50 unbuckled teens killed last year) that will remind the student of their promise to always wear their seat belt. Teens in each of the 11 high schools will also distribute seat-belt fact sheets, document their daily progress and report their pledge results to the Colorado Department of Transportation. The results will be posted on the www.coteendriver.com Web site. The participating schools are:
- Adams City High School -Commerce City
- Boulder High School
- Abraham Lincoln High School - Denver
- Columbine High School - Littleton
- Alameda High School - Lakewood
- Central High School - Pueblo
- Fossil Ridge High School – Fort Collins
- Fruita Monument High School
- Roosevelt High School - Greeley
- Englewood High School
- Manitou Springs High School (tentative)
“These students are making an important commitment to buckle up every time to protect their future,” said Pamela Hutton, CDOT governor’s representative for highway safety. “Unfortunately, many teens know the devastation of losing a friend in a traffic crash, and they are doing what they can to make a difference by getting their friends to sign the pledge to buckle up too.”
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for 15- to 20-year olds in America. Teens account for only 8.5 percent of the driving population but account for 14 percent of the total traffic fatalities. For more information on Colorado’s Graduated Drivers Licensing laws and the Click It or Ticket enforcement, visit www.coteendriver.com.
