(LITTLE ROCK) – Arkansas State Troopers and other participating Arkansas law enforcement officers will join officers in six states next week in a coordinated Click It or Ticket/Border to Border enforcement operation.  The plan is aimed at motor vehicle drivers and passengers who are in violation of state seat belt laws.

  The two-week long Click It or Ticket effort begins Monday, May 21st. On that same day, between 4 and 8 PM, law enforcement officers in Arkansas will join forces with Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma authorities to provide “Border to Border” coverage in seat belt enforcement patrols.  The special operation is designed to send a zero-tolerance message across the six states that no matter where drivers and passengers are unbuckled, the result will be a ticket.

 “We know that wearing a seat belt is the single most effective way to survive a crash.  And we’ll be patrolling heavily traveled and highly visible state borders looking for unrestrained drivers and passengers on May 21^st and statewide during the Memorial Day holiday period,” said Colonel Bill Bryant, Director of the Arkansas State Police and the Governor’s Highway Safety Representative.  “We don’t want to have to write you a ticket, so please buckle-up, every trip, every time.”

 Arkansas state law requires all front seat passengers, not just drivers, be properly buckled up.  It also requires all children less than 15 years of age to be properly secured in the vehicle. Children less than 6 years of age and weighing less than 60 pounds should be restrained in a child passenger safety seat.  If the driver has a restricted license, all passengers in the vehicle must be properly buckled up.

 Nationwide nearly half of all crash fatalities during 2016 involved drivers or passengers who were unrestrained.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the number of unbelted fatalities during nighttime hours rose to 56 percent.

 The Click It or Ticket seat belt enforcement campaign is part of a national initiative aimed at reducing traffic fatalities and saving lives.

  For more information on the Click It or Ticket mobilization, please visit www.nhtsa.gov/ciot, www.TrafficSafetyMarketing.gov, or contact the Arkansas Highway Safety Office at (501) 618-8136.  For more information relating to Arkansas’ ongoing Toward Zero Deaths campaign to eliminate preventable traffic fatalities, go to www.TZDarkansas.org