Click It or Ticket / Online Media Kit

More Floridians buckled up last year, a simple act that saves scores of lives. Safety belt use in the state climbed slightly to 81.7%, pulling almost even with the national average of 82%.

But the minority of Floridians who do not wear a seat belt continue to make up a majority of the roadway body count. In 2007 – the most recent year for which crash statistics are available – the 1 in 5 Floridians who did not buckle up accounted for 3 in 5 traffic fatalities.

That’s why Florida’s 9th annual Click It or Ticket public education campaign will focus on the motorists who are least likely to wear a safety belt: pickup truck drivers and passengers, as well as African-American and Hispanic men.

Last year, only 74.6% of pickup truck occupants wore a safety belt. When measured by race, 85.8% of white drivers and passengers buckled up last year, compared with 70.5% of African-Americans and 80.7% of Hispanics. In all race and age categories, safety belt use is far lower among men (78.1%) than women (86.6%).

Click It or Ticket’s safety belt education campaign will include promotions at sporting events and other popular venues.

In addition, Click It or Ticket will launch a statewide crackdown on all unbuckled drivers and passengers beginning May 18. The enforcement campaign will kick off ahead of Memorial Day, the holiday weekend with the highest annual traffic death toll.

The combination of enforcement and awareness has made Click It or Ticket the most successful safety belt campaign ever. Safety belt use in Florida has jumped 26% since the state first joined Click It or Ticket in 2001.

Click It or Ticket is a cooperative effort of The Florida Department of Transportation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and law enforcement agencies across the state.