Police initate safety-belt campaign

The Virginia State Police has initiated a mini Click It or Ticket campaign Sunday that will run until March 23. Drivers can expect to see a heightened awareness and vigilance of Virginia State Police and local law enforcement authorities searching for seat belt violators during the weeklong event.

Click It or Ticket is a high-visibility enforcement program designed to raise safety belt usage and save Virginians from death and serious injury, according to a released statement.

The Virginia State Police sent along the following facts about seat belts:

Following the May 2007 Click It or Ticket campaign, Virginia's statewide safety belt compliance rate was 79.9 percent, just shy of the 2007 usage goal of 82 percent.

- According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, of the passenger vehicle occupants involved in fatal crashes in Virginia, the 55 percent who were restrained survived.

- When worn correctly, seat belts have proven to reduce the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent - and 60 percent in pickup trucks, SUVs and mini-vans.

Yet nearly one in four Virginians still fail to regularly wear their seat belts when driving or riding in a vehicle. At least 67 people killed in traffic crashes in the first 60 days of this year in Virginia were not buckled up, according to the state police.

"Lives are saved on our highways when people use their seat belts and properly restrain children, toddlers and infants," said Colonel W. Steven Flaherty, Virginia State Police superintendent. "Are you Virginia's next traffic fatality? Choose not to buckle up and you have your answer."

For more information on the Highway Safety Challenge, go to safeVAhighways.org. Additional statistics on Virginia's Click It or Ticket program are available at smartsafeandsober.org.