Highway patrol focusing on seat belts, safety seats

Motorists who are stopped for speeding or any other infraction over the week of May 24 through June 6, run the risk of a second ticket if they're not buckled up.

The Missouri Department of Transportation's Highway Safety Division, in conjunction with the Missouri State Highway Patrol and participating local police agencies throughout the state, will begin its sixth campaign of "Click It or Ticket" aimed at encouraging Missouri drivers and their passengers to wear seat belts and use child restraints while traveling.

Jackie Allen of MoDOT said that since the campaign began, the seat belt usage rate has increased from 60 percent to nearly 73 percent. The message MoDOT wants to send, she said, is that seat belts save lives. In the event of a crash, a person wearing a seat belt has a one-in- seven chance of being injured, she said; for those not wearing a seat belt it's one in three.

A driver in a 2002 Missouri traffic crash had a one-in-46 chance of being killed if not wearing a safety belt. In those cases where drivers wore safety belts, Allen said, their chance of being killed was only one in 1,342.

Last year 1,231 people died on Missouri roads, and 638 of those people were not wearing a seat belt or in a child safety seat.

Officers can't stop a vehicle solely on a seat belt violation, but they will write tickets if they stop a vehicle for any other traffic violation and find that belts are not in use.

Sgt. Larry Plunkett of the highway patrol's Troop E said that Scott and Stoddard counties will be targeted because those areas have a high number of accidents.

Plunkett said the number of fatalities has been reduced since Click It or Ticket began. So far this year, he said, the number of fatal crashes is down from last year's record of 122.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160