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May 14, 2009

Click It or Ticket begins Monday

By Brian Livingston / staff writer

There have been 15 traffic fatalities so far this year in District 6 for which Troop H of the Mississippi Highway Patrol is responsible.

The startling fact about that number, according to Troop H Commander Capt. Billy Mayes, is the majority of those victims would still be alive if they had only taken two seconds to fasten their seat belts.

"The human body does not react well when it is ejected from a vehicle," said Mayes Thursday morning during an announcement for the upcoming Click It or Ticket campaign. "We team with these other law enforcement agencies each year so we can educate the public on the importance of wearing seat belts."

Click It or Ticket is a nationwide enforcement campaign designed to increase seat belt use and reduce highway fatalities. Locally, the Mississippi Highway Department, Meridian Police Department, the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department, Marion Police Department and NAS Meridian will team up beginning Monday to conduct the safety checkpoints throughout the county. The checkpoints will continue throughout the month of May.

The mobilization is conducted annually by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in conjunction with law enforcement agencies. The law enforcement effort is supported by $8 million in national advertisements funded through Congress. The national ads encourage motorists to always buckle up every time they are in a vehicle.

"We especially encourage parents to lead by example and to make sure their children are properly protected while riding in a vehicle," said MPD Capt. Rick McCary. "This program is really designed to educate rather than just write tickets. It wouldn't bother me a bit if everyone was wearing a seat belt and we didn't write a single citation."

McCary said his own surveys with the MPD's seat belt enforcement shows Meridian motorists are above the national average of 83 percent.

Despite the addition of more air bags in vehicles, experts say the seat belt still provides better protection against injury during a car crash. In 2007 alone, seat belts saved an estimated 15,147 lives according to the NHTSA.

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