Click It or Ticket (CIOT) is a campaign by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that encourages driver safety by enforcing seat belt laws nationally to encourage increased seat belt use. The campaign includes an annual May Mobilization that runs from May 19 through June 1, 2014. According to a division of NHTSA, TrafficSafetyMarketing.gov:
“Seat belts are the most effective safety feature ever invented and have helped save thousands of lives. Sadly, one in five Americans fail to regularly wear a seat belt when driving or riding in a motor vehicle.”
NHTSA will continue to focus this year’s campaign toward men,between ages 18 and 34, who their research shows are the demographic least likely to wear seat belts. The mobilization is cracking down on seat belt law violators at all hours of the day and night, but a particular focus will be on violators who drive during nighttime hours. Drivers are more likely to use their seat belt during the day, but a large number of fatal crashes occur between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. The campaign places a particular emphasis on reaching these drivers.
In addition to the May Mobilization period of enforcement, CIOT includes baseline surveys on current seat belt use within states or smaller geographic units, then surveys following the campaign to measure effectiveness. There are also surveys on public awareness before and after the campaign. There is an earned media campaign that started May 5th and runs though June 12 and a paid media campaign from May 12 through May 26. NHTSA has developed a Products for Law Enforcement Action Kit (PEAK) that contains materials for local law enforcement that helps them organize their participation in the Nationwide campaign.
How many fatalities are of people without a seatbelt (of the 8 people I knew who were killed in car crashes, exactly zero were wearing a seat belt)? So while my sample is small, it’s suggestive.
Note that the failure of Americans to wear their seatbelts led to a passive restraint mandate, which was met by airbags. However, airbags are only partially effective if people don’t wear their belts, yet the presence of airbags led drivers to think they didn’t need to fasten their belts.
So why the pre- and post-surveys?