During the March Click It or Ticket campaign, UPD officers ramped up their efforts to ticket drivers who failed to use their seat belts.
Eighty-two seat belt citations were issued during the course of the campaign, according to an email from UPD Officer David Watson.
Prior to the 16-day event, the safety belt usage rate survey reported 93 percent. The post-campaign survey rate was 97 percent, he wrote.
Seat belt citations are more prevalent during the campaign, UPD Lt. Greg Streukens said. The goal is to have no violations.
“It would be wonderful if there were no violators,” he said. “Unfortunately, with the busy lifestyle people have nowadays, it slips their mind.”
The Click It or Ticket program’s visibility and enforcement is credited with helping increase national seat belt usage. In 2011, usage was reported at 84 percent, and by 2012, it reached 86 percent, according to the National Occupant Protection Use Survey. People who wore seat belts in the Southern states increased from 80 percent in 2011 to 85 percent in 2012.
The campaign is a collective attempt among the Florida Department of Transportation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and law enforcement agencies across the state.
Nina Barker, interim director for the Florida Transportation Technology Transfer Center, said the campaign makes drivers realize the law.
“I can only hope that it will increase the compliance in Gainesville, and ultimately, that will save lives,” Barker said.
In Florida, not wearing a seat belt is a primary traffic violation. Officers can ticket a driver or passenger in the front seat for the sole act of not wearing a seatbelt.
In addition, most traffic accidents occur a few miles from the starting point, Streukens said.
“On campus, because of slow speeds, most of our accidents occur in parking lots less than 5 mph,” he said.
The majority of other UPD traffic campaigns are during holiday weekends and football seasons because of the influx of people on the road.
“There is a very strong belief that seat belt usage does save lives,” Streukens said.
From 2007 to 2011, 53 percent of the 121,507 individuals killed in car crashes were not wearing a seatbelt, according to a 2013 Click it or Ticket Fact Sheet from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.·
“Seat belts don’t cause injuries,” said Alexander Wagenaar, an injury prevention expert for the UF Department of Health Outcomes & Policy.
“They lessen the severity of the injuries caused by car crashes,” he said.
