2018 Click It or Ticket

Talking Points

Download Talking Points
  • The Washington Traffic Safety Commission (WTSC) shares a vision with other state and local public agencies to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries. This vision is called Target Zero.
  • Wearing a seat belt is one of the most important and effective ways to survive a crash and help Washington achieve the zero-traffic death goal. 
  • Ninety-five percent of drivers in Washington wear seat belts according to a recent survey. Please help us reach the remaining five percent by asking everyone to buckle up every trip.
  • Nationwide from 2014 to 2016, seat belts saved more than 41,500 lives. 

Click it or Ticket Details

  • Over 150 law enforcement agencies are conducting extra seat belt patrols from May 14 to June 3, 2018, as part of the National Click it or Ticket campaign to reach zero traffic deaths. 
  • As part of this campaign, Washington law enforcement agencies will join the National Border to Border enforcement effort on Monday, May 21, from 4 -8 pm.
  • In Washington, a seat belt ticket is $136.

Seat Belt Use in Washington

  • In 2013 in Washington, 79 percent of passenger vehicle occupants who were ejected from vehicles were killed. Each year in Washington, about 100 people who were not belted die in crashes and nearly 400 people were seriously injured.
  • Washington has the fifth highest seat belt use rate in the nation. The national rate is 89 percent.
  • Remember that sitting in the back seat doesn’t mean you don’t have to buckle up. Fifty-eight percent of back seat passengers killed in crashes in 2014 weren’t buckled up. 
  • Washington passed a secondary seat belt law in 1986 and the seat belt use rate that year was 36 percent. In the following years, Washington’s seat belt use rate rose, and by 2002 the rate was 82 percent.
  • In 2002, Washington passed a primary seat belt law and the seat belt use rate rose to 92 percent the very next year. The seat belt use rate has remained level at 94.5 percent for the last several years.
  • In 2015, 551 people were killed in traffic crashes in Washington.  Of those who died, 112 were not using a seat belt. Some who see these numbers might think, “If 80 percent of the people who died in car crashes were wearing seat belts, doesn’t that mean not wearing a seat belt is five times safer than wearing one?”  No, it doesn’t, and here’s why:  About 95 percent of all drivers in Washington wear a seat belt, leaving 5 percent as non-users.  Those non-users make up 20 percent of traffic fatalities.  This makes your odds of dying in a car crash four times greater if you don’t wear a seat belt.