LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Arkansas Highway Safety Office (AHSO) and Arkansas law enforcement are urging drivers to buckle up ahead of a national Click It or Ticket campaign. The national high-visibility seat belt enforcement effort, which coincides with the Memorial Day holiday, runs May 19 through June 1, 2025.
“Seat belt use should be an automatic habit for drivers and passengers alike,” said Arkansas Public Safety Secretary Colonel Mike Hagar. “It’s not just the safe thing to do — it’s the law. During the Click It or Ticket campaign, we’ll be working with our fellow law enforcement officers across local and state lines to ensure the message gets out to drivers and passengers. Buckling up is the simplest thing anyone can do to limit injury or save a life during a crash. We see the results of not wearing a seat belt all the time. So often, it could have been prevented.”
The seat belt use rate in Arkansas in 2023 was 80%, which is well below the national seat belt use rate of 92%. The remaining 20% of Arkansans still need to be reminded that seat belts save lives. Participating law enforcement agencies will be taking a no-excuses approach to seat belt law enforcement, writing citations day and night.
One of the focuses of the Click It or Ticket campaign is nighttime enforcement. NHTSA data shows a higher number of unrestrained passenger vehicle occupant fatalities happen at night. Also, seat belt use differs among females and males. Of the males killed in crashes in 2021, more than half (54%) were unrestrained. For females killed in crashes, 42% were not buckled up.
The goal of the enforcement campaign is to raise awareness about the risks of not wearing a seat belt, and if it succeeds in doing that, the mission will be considered successful. People are encouraged to remind their friends and family to always buckle up and to reevaluate their habits if they don’t use seat belts. This is a lifesaving message that needs to be spread before one more friend or family member is killed because of this senseless inaction. Seat belts save lives, and it’s vital for everyone — whether in the front or back seat, adult or child — to make buckling up a consistent habit.
For more information on the Click It or Ticket seat belt enforcement mobilization, please visit NHTSA.gov/ClickIt or call the Arkansas Highway Safety Office at (501) 618-8136, and go to https://www.tzdarkansas.org/ to learn about Arkansas’ Toward Zero Deaths campaign to eliminate preventable traffic fatalities.
