Safe driving practices are important and can help to prevent car accidents as well as reduce injuries if an accident occurs. One simple safe driving practice is always wearing your seat belt while driving. Unfortunately, not everyone wears their seat belts when they drive or are a passenger in a vehicle. Wisconsin Law Enforcement and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation are teaming up to help get everyone wearing their seat belts. To help encourage seat belt usage the Click It of Ticket campaign will be beginning soon.

Over the last ten years, seat belt usage in Wisconsin has increased from 74 percent to 90 percent of people wearing their seat belts while in the car. Even though Wisconsin’s rate of seat belt usage has risen over the last decade, Wisconsin’s rate of seat belt usage still lags behind the national average.  Last year, 58,899 people were convicted for failure to use a seat belt in Wisconsin. Although 90 percent of people wear their seat belts while in the car, we should aim to have everyone wear their seat belt, especially because those not wearing a seat belt count for almost half of the driving fatalities in Wisconsin.

Click It or Ticket will begin on May 21, 2018 and last until June 3, 2018. During this time there will be increased police patrols to to work on seat belt enforcement. The goal of this campaign is not to issue tickets for not wearing a seat belt, but to increase voluntarily usage of set belts. A goal of the campaign is to increase seat belt usage, with hopes that it will eventually reach 100 percent with everyone wearing their seat belts when they are in the car.

To help jump start the Click It or Ticket campaign, a press conference was held. Former Green Bay Packer, Donald Driver, was in attendance. Driver spoke of the importance of always buckling up before hitting the roadways and setting a good example for children by wearing a seat belt. Let’s all work together to increase seat belt usage and make the roadways safer for all.