LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. — This week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched its "Click It or Ticket" campaign in an effort to get drivers to buckle up before hitting the road.
Kansas City law enforcement agencies are taking part in the campaign and say a lack of seat belt use continues to be a point of concern, especially as summer travel ramps up.
"Our summer months turn into what we call the deadliest days of the year, because vehicle crashes increase with the number of people out, some of crashes are related to impaired driving," said Sgt. Andy Bell, with the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Depending on where you live, not wearing a seat belt amounts to a primary or secondary offense, but the dangers of not wearing a seat belt remain the same.
So far this year, according to data from the Missouri Department of Transportation, nearly 300 people have died while driving in Missouri and nearly 70% of people killed in those crashes were not wearing a seat belt.
"The hardest part of our job is notifying the next of kin, whether it's the middle of the day or middle of the night, and telling a mother, or father, or a spouse, a loved one, that their person in their life has died because of a car crash and it is a weight that we bear," Bell explained.
In Missouri, drivers can’t be pulled over for not wearing their seat belt, it’s a secondary offense that can result into a $10 fine. In Kansas, not wearing a seat belt is a primary offense with driver facing a $30 fine. In Kansas City, a city ordinance requires every driver to wear their seat belt or pay a $50 fine.
Just last week, KCPD conducted seat belt enforcement across the city on both sides of the river and 194 seat belt tickets were written and 72 other citations were issued.
"I've been doing this job for almost 24 years and when I get to the scene of a crash, I can almost predict who survived that crash and who didn't just by if they had their seat belt on or not," Bell said.
The latest official numbers from the Kansas Department of Transportation indicate that in 2022, 403 people lost their lives while driving on Kansas roadways; the data indicates 191 of those deaths were unbuckled passengers and drivers.
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