'Click It Or Ticket' Campaign Starts In Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- New digital billboards went up Monday with the simulated image of someone plunging from a building.
It's a dramatic part of the "Click It or Ticket" campaign that started Monday and goes until June 3. It's part of nation-wide effort to stop preventable deaths and injuries from driving. In Minnesota, about 400 law enforcement agencies are taking part in the campaign that includes about 10,000 agencies all across America.
The ads are running on billboards downtown at 7th Street and Hennepin Avenue on Monday and on TV spots across Minnesota for the next three weeks.
The ads compare getting into a crash at 60 miles per hour without a seatbelt to falling off a 12-story building. The spot ends with a quick, dramatic zoom to the ground and the message "buckle up."
University of Minnesota Physics professor Dan Dahlberg points out the seatbelt is one of the only safety features we have control over.
"It's a law that you wear your seat belt. You may choose to break that law and not wear your seat belt, but there are laws you can't break and those are the laws of physics," said Dahlberg. "If you choose to not wear your seat belt and are unfortunate enough to get in an accident, then the laws of physics may break you in return."
From 2009 through last year, 43 percent of the 878 traffic deaths that occurred were motorists who were not buckled up. Of that number, 48 percent of the victims were 30 years old or younger.
