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- Utah Highway Patrol launches Click It or Ticket campaign on May 19.
- Pre-enforcement awareness campaign focuses on elderly drivers and young passengers.
- Utah's seat belt usage fell to 91% in 2024 from 92% in 2023.
MILLCREEK — With the start of the summer travel season just around the corner, the Utah Highway Patrol wants to remind people to buckle up, especially elderly drivers and young passengers.
Law enforcers across the state will begin the annual Click It or Ticket enforcement campaign on May 19, during which more than 40 agencies will be patrolling Utah's roads looking specifically for drivers and passengers not wearing their seat belts or who are not properly restrained in a child car seat.
Utah has had a primary seat belt law since 2015, meaning that a driver can be pulled over for anyone in the vehicle not wearing a seat belt. When the law was passed, seat belt usage in the state was about 83%, said UHP Lt. Cameron Roden.
While seat belt usage in Utah climbed to just over 92% in 2023, it slipped to just over 91% in 2024, Roden said. When the Department of Public Safety broke the data down even further, they found that, over the past five years, the worst violators during the day were between the ages of 5 and 14 and between 80 and 84. Those not buckling up at night were mainly between the ages of 10 and 19 and 74 and 79.
On Thursday, the highway patrol, along with other local police agencies and the Utah Highway Safety Office, held a press event to remind drivers that the Click It or Ticket campaign will start a week before the Memorial Day weekend, and to educate those age groups on the importance of buckling up.
Many of the accidents involving those age groups were lower-impact crashes that happened while the driver ran a quick errand, such as to the store, or driving just a short distance. For elderly drivers, Roden says, many may have gotten into the habit of not wearing a seat belt since childhood.
"I think that plays a lot into it. It wasn't required for people at that point in time, so they got in the habit of not wearing their seat belts. Or they may say, 'I don't travel very far anymore. I just kind of stay here around town.' So they think that these short trips are OK and I'm not going to be involved in a crash, I'm just running to the grocery store. But that's when crashes still happen," he said.
For younger passengers, Roden says parents need to remember, "Until you're over 16 years old, that responsibility for wearing the seat belt falls upon the driver, which is usually going to be a parent." If a child is not wearing a seat belt, the driver will still get the ticket.
Those who argue that their vehicle already comes with all the safety bells and whistles to protect them even in a high-speed crash, Roden counters, "Those safety bells and whistles are tested with a person who is buckled. And so they're not as good without that person wearing a seat belt. We want to take advantage of every safety precaution possible."
He says the current educational campaign is aimed at chronic non-seat-belt users to help them "get past those excuses."
"The threat of getting a ticket is definitely a way to encourage people. But sometimes that doesn't reach them as well. A lot of times, it's just the encouragement of a loved one saying, 'Hey, will you put your seat belt on?' that does the trick," he said.
Through Thursday, there have been 59 serious injuries and 13 fatalities in Utah due to crashes involving unrestrained people, according to the UHP.
