Click It or Ticket campaign begins

As the Memorial Day holiday approaches, the Nebraska Department of Transportation Highway Safety Office is partnering with state and local law enforcement to promote the importance of buckling up.

Just as COVID-19 has taught us the importance of proactively protecting yourself by wearing a mask, buckling up is as important in reducing motor vehicle injuries and fatalities.

"As our state resumes to normal business and transportation activities, it is important that we share this lifesaving message with Nebraskans," stated Mark Segerstrom, administrator for the NDOT-HSO. "The Click It Or Ticket campaign focuses on safety education, strong laws and law enforcement officers saving lives. Hundreds of law enforcement officers come together to help us enforce the message, make an impact and save a life."

During the 2019 Click It Or Ticket campaign, 936 Nebraska law enforcement officers issued citations for 310 seat belt and 40 child passenger restraint offenses.

Nebraska averages one road fatality every day and a half. Of the 175 fatalities in 2018, 66% were unbuckled. Safety belts, when used, reduce the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passenger car occupants by 45% and light truck occupants by 60%. Wearing a seat belt is the single most effective thing anyone can do to prevent injury or death in a vehicle crash.

The Click It or Ticket campaign combines powerful messages about seat belt safety with increased patrolling for all unbuckled motorists.

Douglas County Sheriff Timothy Dunning says, "The bottom line is this: wearing a seat belt may very well mean the difference between life and death. This Memorial Day, and every day of the year, remember: Click It Or Ticket."

Nebraska's seat belt law stipulates that the driver, and each front-seat occupant in a vehicle, must be correctly wearing a seat belt that is properly adjusted and fastened.

The child passenger safety law requires children ride rear facing up to age two or until they reach the upper weight or height limit allowed by the car seat's manufacturer.

All children up to age eight must ride correctly secured in a federally-approved child safety seat or booster and must also ride in the back seat, as long as there is a back seat equipped with a seat belt and is not occupied by other children under eight years of age.