Click It or Ticket Navigation
- Planning Materials
- State Legislation
- Child Safety Seats
- Child Passenger Safety
- Teen Drivers
Click It or Ticket
State and local law enforcement will team up with highway safety officials to kick off the summer season with “Click It or Ticket” – a nation-wide, seat belt enforcement mobilization aimed at reducing highway deaths. The campaign will run May 21−June 3 with an emphasis on getting everyone to buckle up day and night.
In the United States during 2005, safety belts saved the lives of an estimated 15,632 people over 4 years of age, and child-restraint use saved the lives of 420 children ages 4 years and younger (NHTSA 2006). Drivers and passengers can cut their risk of dying in a crash by half simply by buckling up.
Quick Facts
- Motor vehicle-related injuries kill more children and young adults in the age group 1 to 34 than any other single cause in the United States (CDC 2006).
- In 2005, 31,415 occupants of passenger cars and light trucks died in motor vehicle crashes in the United States. This includes 1,617 children ages 15 years and younger and 4,899 people ages 16 to 20 years (NHTSA 2006).
- More than half the people killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2005 were not wearing safety belts (NHTSA 2006).
- Child safety seats reduce the risk of death in passenger cars by 71% for infants and by 54% for toddlers ages 1 to 4 (NHTSA 2006).
- For children ages 4 to 7, booster seats reduce injury risk by 59% compared to safety belts alone (Durbin 2003).
CDC and the Task Force on Community Preventive Services reviewed various methods designed to increase safety belt and child restraint use. They provided recommendations on each of the methods based on how effective it was. Learn more about the techniques they reviewed and their specific recommendations.
CDC's
Injury Center Publications Related to Safety Belt and Child Restraint
Use
Beck LF, Gilbert BC, Shults RA. Prevalence of seat belt use among reproductive-aged women and prenatal counseling to wear seat belts. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 2005;192(2): 580-5.
Beck LF, Shults RA, Colley GB. Pregnant women and safety belts: what do we know? Research on Women’s Issues in Transportation: Report of a Conference 2005;35(2):140-6.
Dinh-Zarr TB, Sleet DA, Shults RA, Zaza S, Elder RW, Nichols JL, et al. Task Force on Community Preventive Services. Reviews of evidence regarding interventions to increase use of safety belts. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2001;21 Suppl 4:48-65.
Everett SA, Shults RA, Barrios LC, Sacks JJ, Lowry R, Oeltmann J. Trends and subgroup differences in transportation-related risk and safety behaviors among high school students, 1991−1997. Journal Adolescent Health 2001;28:228-34.
Hedlund J, Preusser D, Shults RA. A research agenda for increasing safety belt use in the United States. Journal of Safety Research 2004;35(2):231–5.
Phelan KJ, Khoury J, Grossman DC, Hu D, Wallace LJD, Bill N, et al. Pediatric motor vehicle related injuries in the Navajo Nation: The impact of the 1988 child occupant restraint laws. Injury Prevention 2002;8:216–20.
Reducing injuries to motor vehicle occupants. In: Zaza S, Briss PA, Harris KW (Eds.) The Guide to Community Preventive Services. New York: Oxford University Press; 2005 (329-84).
Shults RA, Elder RW, Sleet DA, Thompson RS. Primary enforcement seat belt laws are effective even in the face of rising belt use rates. Accident Analysis and Prevention 2004;36:491-93.
Shults RA, Nichols JL, Dinh-Zarr TB, Sleet DA, Elder RW. Effectiveness of primary enforcement seat belt laws and enhanced enforcement of seat belt laws: a summary of the guide to community preventive services systematic reviews. Journal of Safety Research 2004; 35(2):189–96.
Staunton C, Davidson S, Kegler S, Dawson L, Powell K, Dellinger A. Critical gaps in child passenger safety practices, surveillance, and legislation: Georgia, 2001. Pediatrics 2005; 115(2):372-379.
Task Force on Community Preventive Services. Recommendations to reduce injuries to motor vehicle occupants: increasing child safety seat use, increasing safety belt use, and reducing alcohol-impaired driving. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2001;21 Suppl 4:16-22.
MMWR Articles
Beck LF. Notice to Readers: Click It or Ticket Campaign – May 21-June 3, 2007. MMWR 2007;56(19):481-2. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5619a6.htm
Greenspan A. Notice to Readers: National Child Passenger Safety Week, February 11−17, 2007. MMWR 2007;56(5):97-8. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5605a3.htm
Beck LF. Notice to Readers: Buckle Up America Week --- May 22--29, 2006. MMWR 2006;55(19):535-6. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5519a6.htm
Greenspan A. Notice to Readers: National Child Passenger Safety Week, February 12−18, 2006. MMWR 2006;55(5):130. www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5505a5.htm
Beck LF, Mack KA, Shults RA. Impact of primary laws on adult use of safety belts—United States, 2002. MMWR 2004;53(12):257–60. www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5312a2.htm
CDC. Motor-vehicle occupant injury: strategies for increasing use of child safety seats, increasing use of safety belts, and reducing alcohol-impaired driving. A report on recommendations of the Task Force on Community Preventive Services. MMWR Recommendations and Reports 2001;50(No. RR-7):1-13. www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5007a1.htm
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
- Buckle Up America
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
- Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
- The Task Force on Community Preventive Services and the Community Guide
- Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD)
- World Health Organization and World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS) [Online]. (2006). National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (producer). Available from: URL: www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars. [Cited 2007 Feb 21].
Durbin DR, Elliott MR, Winston FK. Belt-positioning booster seats and reduction in risk of injury among children in vehicle crashes. JAMA 2003;289(14):2835–40.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) (US), Department of Transportation. Traffic Safety Facts 2005 Data: Occupant Protection. Washington (DC): NHTSA; 2006 [cited 2007 Feb 21]. Available from: URL: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/TSF2005/810621.pdf
* Links to non-Federal organizations found at this site are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at these links.
Please note: Some of these publications are available for download only as *.pdf files. These files require Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to be viewed. Please review the information on downloading and using Acrobat Reader software.
Page last modified: May 17, 2007