May 6, 2019 at 10:06 a.m.

Local authorities kick off "Click it, or Ticket" campaign for May


By Bartholomew County Sheriff's Department-

Press Release

This month Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Office and other area agencies will join law-enforcement agencies across the nation to increase enforcement of seat-belt laws for Click It or Ticket.

Multiple weeks of highly visible patrols will be watching for unrestrained passengers in cars and trucks, both children and adults, the front seat and back, both day and night.

Click It or Ticket continues through the Memorial Day holiday and the start of the summer travel season. Overtime police patrols are paid with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration funds administered by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute.

“Why are police warning everyone before the seat-belt crack-down begins?” said Bartholomew County Sheriff Matthew A. Myers. "Because we respond to traffic crashes and we see the preventable deaths and painful injuries from motorists not buckling up."

Indiana law requires the driver and all passengers to buckle up. Children under age eight must be properly restrained in child car seat or booster seat.

The share of Hoosiers not buckling up has dropped to 6.6 percent, below the national average of 10.4 percent. But new data from ICJI and the Indiana University Public Policy Institute show that unrestrained motorists still make up 53 percent of traffic deaths.

Unrestrained motorists are more likely to die in crashes by 10 times in cars and SUVs, 14 times in pickup trucks and 15 times in vans.

Drivers under age 24, especially young male drivers, are the least likely to be buckled during a crash. Injury rates among unrestrained motorists are also higher:

  • In rural counties.
  • When a driver is speeding or impaired.
  • On weekend nights between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m.
HOPE