CLEVELAND — On Tuesday, law enforcement officers from across Cuyahoga County, alongside the Cuyahoga County Safe Communities Coalition, worked together to create a video for the annual "Click It Or Ticket" campaign, which aims to drive home the importance of using seat belts.
Officers from the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Cleveland, Shaker Heights, and several other police departments gathered in the Dawg Pound at Cleveland Browns Stadium, pushing seat belt use as an important measure to stay safe on the roads.
While seat belt use may sound like common sense, statistics on usage in Ohio show that about 40% of drivers do not wear seat belts.
“Ohio is seeing the lowest seat belt use rates in 18 years, and in Cuyahoga County, unfortunately, we are the worst county in the state of Ohio,” said Jennifer Walker with UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital and the Safe Communities Coalition. “Our seatbelt use rate for 2022 was only at 59%.”
Walker said there were 82 traffic fatalities in Cuyahoga County last year, and 53 of those were people who were “unbelted.” Walker said those are lives that potentially could have been saved, had they been wearing a seat belt.
“It’s sad, because people really don’t understand just how much a seat belt can save your life,” said Sgt. Stephanie Murphy with the Cleveland Division of Police. “We get rollovers on the highway all the time, and then what do we hear? People are being ejected from the vehicles. That seat belt is to keep you from hitting the steering wheel, the windshield, or being thrown out of your vehicle in case of a severe accident.”
According to the Ohio Department of Public Safety, it is the law to wear seat belts in Ohio. However, failing to wear a seat belt is currently a secondary, rather than primary offense, meaning drivers cannot be pulled over solely for failing to wear a seat belt. During the Click it Or Ticket mobilization, which spans May 22 – June 4, Walker said seat belt usage will be strictly enforced by officers.
“Ohio has a secondary seat belt law, so you have to be pulled over for something else,” Walker said. “If you look at our neighboring states in Michigan and Indiana, they have primary laws, they are way into the 90s for their seat belt use. So the threat of enforcement does work, which is why we do Click It Or Ticket.”
Walker and Sgt. Murphy both said its about repetition and building automatic habits to put on your seat belt.
"I tell people, when you get in your car, make that the first thing you do before you turn on the radio, you do anything else - pull that seat belt across, and buckle up,” said Sgt. Murphy.
Walker said the aim of creating a video to be shared on social media platforms like TikTok is to reach more people, and spread the message for drivers to buckle up. The finished video should be posted to social media by the end of this week.