Six people not wearing seat belts during wrecks killed in Clark County this year.
Six people in Clark County not wearing their seat belt during an accident have been killed this year.
The Clark County Com- bined Health District will kick off this year’s Click It or Ticket initiative this week to educate people on the importance of buckling up.
The national seat belt campaign runs from May 22 to June 4. The CCCHD will host a press conference at 11 a.m. on Thursday at 529 E. Home Road, along with the Clark County Safe Commu- nities Coalition and local law enforcement, including the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
“The CCCHD urges driv- ers to buckle up during the U.S. Department of Trans- portation’s National High- way Traffic Safety Admin- istration’s (NHTSA) national Click It or Ticket high-visi- bility enforcement effort,” health district officials said in a release.
As part of the event, the Clark County Safe Communi- ties Coalition will participate in a SADD quick-click chal- lenge with the Greene County Safe Communities Coalition where teams of students and adults will engage in a safety belt relay to showcase the “simplicity and importance” of fastening safety belts.
So far this year in Clark County, a total of 484 seat belt enforcement stops have been recorded compared to 290 in 2023, and six fatalities have been attributed to not wearing a seatbelt.
In 2021, there were 11,813 unbuckled passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in the U.S., and 57% of passenger vehicle occupants killed at night were not wearing their seat belts, according to the NHTSA.
Data shows that seat belt use is higher among females than males. Nearly twice as many males were killed in crashes as compared to females in 2021, with 54% of males and 42% of females unrestrained.