The Click it or Ticket Campaign conducted across eight southeastern states in May delivered a record increase in seat belt use and will result in hundreds of lives saved. Belt use jumped nine percentage points, meaning more than 4.4 million additional people are buckling up. Over the course of a year this increase could save 659 lives and $1 billion in health care costs.

The Click It or Ticket high visibility enforcement program combines intense enforcement with paid advertising to notify the public about the enforcement. The goal is to encourage people to buckle up to avoid a ticket. The model is based on years of research showing that for many people who don't wear seat belts -- especially young people -- the possibility of receiving a ticket is a more powerful incentive than the threat of injury or death.

Click It or Ticket is part of an ongoing national initiative to increase the belt use, and is a partnership between the law enforcement community, state highway safety offices, the Air Bag & Seat Belt Safety Campaign and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.