Notice to Readers: Click It or Ticket Campaign --- May 21--June 3, 2007

During 2005, motor-vehicle crashes resulted in 33,041 deaths to vehicle occupants (excluding motorcyclists), and nearly 3 million occupants were treated for injuries in emergency departments in the United States (1,2). Safety belts, child safety seats, and booster seats can prevent serious injury and death during a crash.

Despite the demonstrated effectiveness of occupant restraints in motor vehicles, millions of adults and children travel unrestrained. Certain age groups are less likely to be restrained than others. For example, in the United States, children aged 4--7 years are less likely than younger children to be restrained. In 2006, 22% of children in this age group were unrestrained, compared with 11% of children aged 1--3 years and 2% of infants (3). Furthermore, restraint use among children aged 4--7 years decreased from 83% in 2002 to 78% in 2006 (3,4). CDC recommends booster seats for children who have outgrown their child safety seats but are less than 4 feet, 9 inches tall (5). Children whose drivers are wearing a safety belt are more likely to be restrained than those whose drivers are not wearing a safety belt (3). Therefore, increasing adult use of safety belts through enforcement of safety belt laws might also increase the numbers of children who are restrained (6).

Click It or Ticket, May 21--June 3, 2007, is a national campaign that is coordinated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to increase the proper use of safety belts and child restraints. Law-enforcement agencies nationwide will participate by conducting intensive, high-visibility enforcement of safety belt and child restraint laws.

Additional information regarding Click It or Ticket activities is available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website at http://www.nhtsa.gov. Additional information on child passenger safety is available at http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/childpas.htm; information on preventing motor-vehicle crash injuries is available at http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/duip/mvsafety.htm.

References

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Traffic safety facts 2005. Washington, DC: US Department of Transportation; 2006 (publication no. DOT-HS-810-631).

CDC. WISQARS nonfatal injury reports. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC. Available at http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/nfirates2001.html.

Glassbrenner D, Ye J. Child restraint use in 2006 -- overall results. Washington, DC: US Department of Transportation; 2007 (publication no. DOT-HS-810-737).

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Traffic safety facts 2002: children. Washington, DC: US Department of Transportation; 2003 (publication no. DOT-HS-809-607).

CDC. National child passenger safety week -- February 14_20, 1999. MMWR 1999;48:83--4.
Russell J, Kresnow MJ, Brackbill R. The effect of adult belt laws and other factors on restraint use for children under age 11. Accid Anal Prev 1994;26:287--95.