Nearly one in five Americans (or 18 percent nationally) still fail to regularly wear their safety belts when driving or riding in a motor vehicle, according to a new report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Among those least likely to buckle up: young males, pickup truck drivers and their passengers, people who live in rural areas, and night-time drivers. Failure to regularly wear a safety belt can be deadly. According to NHTSA, 31,693 passenger vehicle occupants died in traffic crashes during 2004 and 55 percent of those killed were NOT wearing their safety belts at the time of the crash.

That’s why the Southwest Coalition of Safe Communities announced today they are joining with more than 12,000 other State and local law enforcement and highway safety officials during May for an aggressive national “Click It or Ticket” mobilization to crack down on North Dakota’s safety belt law violators and to reduce highway fatalities.

Regular safety belt use is the most effective way to protect people and reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes. When worn correctly, safety belts have proven to reduce the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent and by 60 percent in pickup trucks, SUVs and mini-vans.

Safety belt checkpoints and other stepped-up law enforcement activities will be conducted during the national “Click It or Ticket” enforcement mobilization, which runs May 22nd through June 4th.

Too many people still take the attitude that it will never happen to them. But fatal crashes can and do happen every day. That’s why law enforcement will be out in force showing zero tolerance for anyone not buckled up. They would much rather write a thousand tickets than have to knock on one family’s door with the news that their loved one didn’t survive a crash because they weren’t wearing their safety belt.

Unless you want to risk a ticket, or worse – your life, please remember to “Click It or Ticket” day and night.

For more information on the national “Click It or Ticket” mobilization, please visit www.buckleupamerica.org.