The Click it or Ticket campaign is underway to encourage motorists to buckle up, for Memorial Day weekend. Greg Fischer with the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission said 15% of drivers, mainly in rural areas of the state, aren’t wearing their seatbelts.
“Forty-five percent of the people who die in fatal crashes in Louisiana are not buckled up, that tells us that 15% of people who aren’t buckling up are at a greater risk of dying in a car crash,” said Fischer.
Click it or Ticket is a national campaign so if your travels take you across stateliness you’ll want to stay buckled up. Fischer said a first-offense ticket for not using your seat belt in Louisiana is $50.
“The issue is not the $50 ticket that you would get, we’re not trying to ruin anybody’s day. We really are trying to save lives and that’s the mission of the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission,” said Fischer.
Fischer said surveys show if you drive a truck and live in rural Louisiana, you’re least likely to wear your seatbelt. Campaigns like Click It and Ticket are hoping to change that statistic. He said if you get into a crash in your truck on a rural highway…
“You’re liable to roll over and you’re liable to hit a telephone poll or a tree and if you’re not buckled up your life is at a much greater degree of danger,” said Fischer.
In Louisiana, the driver and all passengers are required to wear seat restraints.
During the Memorial Day holiday period from 2018 to 2022, 52 people were killed on Louisiana roads.
