UW-Green Bay Police join ‘Click It or Ticket’ mobilization

To prevent traffic deaths and injuries, UW-Green Bay Police along with law enforcement agencies from all over Wisconsin will be out in force to crackdown on unbuckled motorists during the annual Click It or Ticket mobilization from May 18 to May 31.  It’s a push for safety. Officials share the following quick facts:

• Consistent safety belt use is the single most effective way to protect people from being ejected from a vehicle or thrown around violently inside it during a crash and possibly hitting another vehicle occupant with massive force.

• In 2013, more than half of the drivers and passengers killed in crashes were not buckled up.

• Wisconsin’s safety belt use rate is approximately 82%, which is the all-time high for the state. This means about four out of five drivers and passengers are buckling up.

• However, the 82% rate in Wisconsin is still substantially lower than the national average of 87% and much lower than neighboring states whose rates exceed 90%.

• Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for teens and young adults nationwide.

• On average, a motorist age 19 or under in Wisconsin is killed or injured in a traffic crash every 1.6 hours.

• Teens are needlessly killed or injured in large part because of a lack of safety belt use combined with inexperience behind the wheel.

• Motorists who are hurt or killed in traffic crashes because they didn’t buckle up create tremendous economic losses, such as medical expenses. The rest of society pays for nearly 75% of these economic losses through higher insurance premiums, taxes, and other public funding, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

• Economic losses from traffic fatalities and injuries in Wisconsin were more than $2 billion in 2012, according to the 2012 Wisconsin Traffic Crash Facts report.