Safety Administrators Urge Residents to Buckle Up
Safety Administrators Urge Residents to Buckle Up
The Milbank Police Department, the South Dakota Department of Public Safety – Office of Highway Safety, and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is urging drivers to buckle up during the Click It or Ticket seat belt safety campaign. The national high-visibility seat belt enforcement effort, which coincides with the Memorial Day holiday, runs Monday, May 11, to Sunday, May 31.
Seat belt use should be an automatic habit for drivers and passengers alike. During the Click It or Ticket campaign, law enforcement officers across local and state lines will work to ensure the message gets out to drivers and passengers. Not buckling up could mean a ticket, or worse, risking a life.
In 2024, there were 9,758 unbuckled passenger vehicle occupants killed in traffic crashes. The national seat belt use rate in 2024 was 91.2 percent. The other 8.8 percent still need to be reminded that seat belts save lives.
One of the focuses of the Click It or Ticket seat belt campaign is nighttime enforcement. NHTSA data shows a higher number of unrestrained occupant fatalities happen at night (56 percent between the hours of 6 p.m. and 5:59 a.m.). Of the males killed in crashes in 2023, more than half (53 percent) were unrestrained. For females killed in crashes, 41 percent were not buckled up.
Statistics were provided by the South Dakota Department of Public Safety – Office of Highway Safety.
Safety administrators provide the right way to buckle up, which is as follows:
• place the shoulder belt across the middle of the chest and away from the neck
• lay the lap belt across the hips and not the stomach
• never place the seat belt behind the back or under arms
Officials are asking friends and family to remind each other to buckle up in the front and back seats and to consider changing their habits if they don’t. Seat belts save lives, and everyone – front seat and back, child and adult – needs to remember to buckle up.
For more information on the Click It or Ticket seat belt high-visibility enforcement campaign, please visit NHTSA.gov/ClickIt and https://drivesafesd.com.
