Buckle Up, Drive Nice: It's 'Click It or Ticket Week' in Massachusetts

Police departments across the Commonwealth, including Burlington, have extra patrols on the week of May 11-25 to enforce seat belt and aggressive driving violations.

Supported by a grant by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS), this is the fourth mobilization of the Click It or Ticket initiative since October of 2014.

It’s well-documented that seatbelts help reduce serious injury or death in a car crash. Drivers and passengers increase their risk by up to 50 percent, according to the EOPSS

“In 2012, Massachusetts recorded 349 fatalities and 4,384 incapacitating injuries related to motor vehicle crashes on the roadway of the Commonwealth,” reports the EOPSS. “This was a marked decrease from the 374 fatalities and 4,853 incapacitating injuries reported in 2011.”

EOPSS has been implementing Click It or Ticket since 2002, reporting that over the past 12 years, it has helped increase safety belt usage in Massachusetts from 51 percent in 2002 to 77 percent in 2014. And during that same time period, fatalities from non-belted vehicle occupants dropped from 57 percent to 28 percent.

Massachusetts law requires all occupants to be properly restrained by safety belts when riding in a private passenger motor vehicle, including vans and trucks.