Make sure everyone in the family gets home safely this holiday season by buckling your seat belt every trip, day and night.
That’s the message that the Santa Monica Police Department is telling drivers as part of the 2009 holiday Click It or Ticket mobilization. Officers will be out in force looking for anyone — driver, passenger or child — not properly restrained.
Given the years of public awareness campaigns, including hundreds of Click It or Ticket highway signs, no warnings will be given out. The Click It or Ticket campaign relies on heavy enforcement and education as a means to help save lives on California’s roadways.
“There is absolutely no question that seat belts save lives,” said SMPD Chief Tim Jackman. Currently, California has a seat belt usage rate of 95.4 percent, but that still means over 1.5 million people in the state are not buckling up, police said.