'Click It Or Ticket' Enforcement Campaign Begins In Morristown

MORRISTOWN, NJ — Law enforcement officers from the Morristown Police Department will be cracking down on unbuckled motorists and passengers for two weeks as part of the national “Click it or Ticket” campaign.

The crackdown will begin on Monday, May 22, and run through Sunday, June 4.

Police will be using 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.

Here is the full list of law enforcement agencies in Morris County receiving grant money, and how much they received, per the AG's office:

• Morristown: $7,000
• Parsippany-Troy Hills: $8,750
• Boonton Township: $7,000

According to the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety, in 2022 there were 694 people in the state killed in traffic crashes. About 40 percent of the motor vehicle occupants who died in these crashes were not wearing a seat belt.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, wearing a seat belt reduces the risk of serious injury or death in a crash by 45 percent.

A key focus of this year's Click It or Ticket campaign in New Jersey is to promote seat belt usage by adults in all seating positions in the vehicle, including front and rear seats.

In New Jersey, the front seat belt usage rate is currently 92.97 percent. Adults in rear seats, on the other hand, buckle up at a significantly lower rate, only 48 percent, according to the most recent surveys.

“Too many New Jerseyans needlessly lose their lives due to motor vehicle-related fatalities, and reducing these preventable deaths is a top priority for my office,” Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement.

During the 2022 Click it or Ticket campaign, 145 New Jersey police agencies participated in the two-week initiative. As a result of the effort, law enforcement officers issued 8,373 seat belt citations, 3,315 speeding summonses and made 278 impaired driving arrests, authorities said.

“Our campaign will help raise awareness of this critical and proven way of preventing serious injury or death in the event of a motor vehicle crash. Seat belts save lives – it’s that simple,” Platkin said.