Warren Career Center hosts ‘Click It or Ticket’

The Warren County Career Center was the scene Tuesday for the annual “Click or Ticket” safety campaign. The Career Center hosted the local kickoff in partnership with the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Warren County Safe Communities Coalition.

About 175 students from the Career Center’s main and Greentree campuses participated in the event.

The campaign, which runs from Monday through June 5, is part of a national effort aimed at enforcing seat belt use to help keep families safe, and coincides with what is expected to be a busy summer travel season, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The kickoff at the career center also included local law enforcement and the Warren County Sheriff’s Office to make sure student drivers and their passengers are wearing seat belts as they leave school grounds. Drivers and their passengers received Smarties candy for wearing their seat belt or Dum Dums for driving unrestrained.

Since May 1, 2021, there have been 523 traffic crashes in Warren County involving drivers or passengers who were not wearing seat belts, according to traffic safety analysis by the Ohio Department of Transportation. Eight of those traffic crashes resulted in deaths.

Law enforcement officers also will be cracking down on unbuckled motorists and passengers as part of the national Click It or Ticket campaign. The national mobilization utilizes high-visibility seat belt checkpoints and saturation patrols, in combination with local and national publicity efforts, to reiterate the life-saving value of seat belts, according to the NHTSA.