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The May 2003 National Mobilization was the largest-ever nationwide publicity and enforcement program to increase safety belt use. Approximately $25 million worth of paid advertisements repeatedly advised motorists, especially high risk 18 to 34-year old males, to wear a safety belt or receive a ticket. The threat of enforcement was real; law enforcement issued over one-half million safety belt citations in a two-week period. Impressively, 41 percent of law enforcement agencies across 45 states reported the results of their enforcement campaign for the Mobilization. More participated, but did not share their ticketing activities. Evaluation results indicated that short term and well publicized enforcement worked to improve safety belt use. Belt use improved after the public was exposed to the National Mobilization’s enforcement activities, paid advertising, and publicity. Safety belt messages are fairly common throughout the year. However, enforcement centered messages are not. Exposure to enforcement centered messages improves during mobilizations. Forty-percent of telephone survey respondents indicated knowing of the enforcement effort. Nearly half (47 percent) of the survey respondents after the Mobilization said they believed police were writing more tickets now, a 13 percentage point increase from before. Respondents also indicated higher perceived risk of getting a ticket after Mobilization activities. Telephone and Driver Licensing Office surveys indicate that the public is well aware of the Click It or Ticket slogan. The public remains supportive of laws and enforcement of laws aiming to improve safety belt use rates. Drivers became more aware of the stepped up enforcement. Television and radio were the most common sources of information. There is some evidence that such media penetration is related to observed belt usage. Awareness of National Mobilizations and Click It or Ticket in particular has increased with each passing National Mobilization. However, the perceived likelihood of being ticketed has not changed appreciatively, at least nationally, across mobilizations since 2000. Increases in perceived likelihood of a ticket that have been achieved during Mobilizations all but disappear between subsequent campaigns. That is, the lack of full-time PI&E and enforcement between Mobilizations results in decreases in usage between waves. The purpose behind sTEPs, like Click It or Ticket, are not necessarily to issue safety belt tickets but to convince motorists that non-use will result in a ticket. This mobilization succeeded in raising program awareness, and maybe more importantly, influenced public opinion that police were doing more about enforcing the law. Consequently, belt use increased. Belts are approximately 50 percent effective for preventing fatality
in crashes in which motorists would otherwise die, and so raising belt
use saves lives. It is estimated that raising use to 79 percent in 2003
from 75 percent prevented 1,000 deaths that would have otherwise occurred
in 2003. Since belts saved an estimated 14,000 motorists in 2002, NHTSA
estimates that belts will have prevented 15,000 deaths by the end of
2003. In saving lives and preventing injuries, belt use saves billions
of dollars in costs to society annually. |