Law enforcement agencies across Ohio will be ramping up efforts to enforce seat belt laws as part of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s annual “Click It or Ticket” campaign, which officially begins May 25.

It’s an attempt to remind drivers there are legal and financial consequences for not wearing a seat belt. But let’s forget about those for a minute. Let’s focus, instead, on what’s really important.

According to NHTSA, in 2020, 10,893 unbuckled passenger vehicles’ occupants were killed in crashes in the United States. The age group with one of the highest percentages of deaths is 18-34. Among those young adults killed, 60 percent were completely unrestrained.

“I’ve worked several fatals with highway patrol in the past year,” said Beverly Village Police Department Chief Todd Bumbalough during a kickoff weekend this week.

“A lot of times the people we find that have passed away in these crashes, if they had their seat belt on, they’d still be with us,” he said.

Properly buckling your seat belt every time you get in a vehicle could save your life (in addition to saving you the cost and hassle of a ticket). And doing so models good behavior for your kids, who are much more likely to buckle up themselves when they are older if they have watched a parent or guardian regularly do so.

It’s important to make sure those kids are in the right seats until they are big enough, and then properly buckled in the right kind of seat belt as they grow, too.

We urge you not to blow off Click it or Ticket as just another law enforcement push. This one is an important opportunity to reset good habits that could someday save your life.

editorial@vindy.com