Mesa County Target of Colorado Click It or Ticket Campaign

In an effort to encourage everyone to wear seat belts, the Colorado Department of Transportation, with the help of law enforcement, have started an intensive Click It Or Ticket campaign with Mesa County one of the specific target areas.

It is estimated between 55 and 60 lives could be saved every year if everyone buckled up. More importantly, your chances of being killed in a car accident are over 50% if you're not wearing a seat belt. With odds you're more likely to be killed than survive, buckling up is clearly an easy way to save your life.

Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) statistics show only 84% of people in Colorado wear seat belts. They also report the number of fatalities where the occupants in a vehicle weren't wearing seat belts increased from 2016 to 2017.

In Mesa County, seat belt use is a disappointing 75.5% making it one of the four worst counties in the state. Only, La Plata (74%), Montezuma (74.4%), and Cheyenne (75.2%) counties have lower seat belt use.

A click it or ticket campaign last year resulted in over 1,300 citations issued for not wearing a seat belt. That includes 69 drivers who were ticketed for children and teens in the vehicle who were not wearing seat belts.

This year's campaign, which runs through April 1st, is targeting rural areas which have the highest percentage of drivers who don't buckle up.