‘Click It or Ticket’ campaign begins Monday

By William Curnutte - NAS Jax Security Department Crime Prevention Officer

The holidays are just around the corner and so are the two months traditionally considered periods of high vehicular accidents and fatalities in the United States. Unfortunately, motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death for the military.

In the last four years, the Navy has lost 317 shipmates in private motor vehicle accidents. According to the Naval Safety Center, 31 percent of those who died were not wearing their seat belts. Yet, all Navy personnel are required by instruction to wear seat belts, both on and off base, at all times. In Florida, it is against the law to not buckle up.

To ensure this requirement is enforced, the NAS Jax Security Department will be participating in the “Click It or Ticket” campaign Nov. 17-30.

What is the “Click It or Ticket” program?” It’s a high-profile law enforcement activity that gives people more of a reason to buckle up because of the increased threat of getting a traffic ticket.

In Florida, 75 percent of the population buckles up for safety. However, research shows that appeals to “do the right thing and buckle up” don’t work for the remaining people who don’t use seat belts. What gets people to buckle up is high visibility law enforcement. That means checkpoints and traffic tickets for drivers found not wearing belts.

During this campaign, drivers and passengers coming through the NAS Jax gates will be cited for not wearing a seat belt. There will also be random seat belt checkpoints at various locations on the base.

If you arrived at one of these checkpoints not wearing your seat belt, you will be pulled over and given a ticket. Failure to use a seat belt is considered a primary traffic offense onboard this base.

This means a police officer can pull over a driver and give him a ticket simply because he is not wearing a seat belt.

In Florida, failure to use a seat belt is a secondary traffic offense; meaning a police officer off base cannot ticket anyone for a seat belt violation unless the driver was stopped for another violation.

What is Florida’s seat belt law? All front seat occupants must be buckled up, regardless of age. Children ages 6-15 must be belted in either the front or back seat of the vehicle. The driver is responsible for passengers under 16 years who are not buckled up.

Passengers 16 years of age or older may be individually fined if they are not buckled up.

Children through age three must be secured in a separate carrier or a vehicle manufacturer’s integrated child safety seat. For children aged four through five years, a separate carrier, or integrated child safety seat, or a seat belt may be used. The cost to a violator for not wearing a seat belt in Florida is $30, plus any other legal assessments (such as court costs).

The cost to a violator for not following child safety belt law is $60, plus any other legal assessments, and three points on your driving record.

The “Click It or Ticket” program is not about writing tickets, but about saving lives. Officers don’t want to write tickets, but officers don’t want to notify a family about the death of a loved one. If writing a ticket will save a life, the officer will write the ticket.

More Americans between the ages of one and 34 died because of vehicular crashes than any other cause. Vehicular crashes account for more deaths per year than homicides, deaths from work-related accidents or aviation deaths.

Yet more than half of all the people who died from crashes might have lived if they had used seat belts.

Research shows that 70 percent of the children will not be buckled when the driver is unbuckled. A child unrestrained in a 30-mph crash is equivalent to a child falling from a three-story building.

The cost of hospital care for an unbuckled driver is 50 percent higher than those for a driver wearing a seat belt, and more than 85 percent of the cost is absorbed not by the individuals involved, but by Florida citizens.

The simple act of always buckling your seat belt can prevent all this.

Remember, beginning Monday through the end of the month, we will be giving tickets for not wearing a seat belt. The choice is yours. I hope you will make the right choice.

For information, call 542-1586.