ROCKFORD — The Rockford Police Department is partnering with the Illinois Department of Transporation again this year in the “Click It or Ticket” campaign as way to remind motorists to use their seat belts as as summer kicks off and travel increases across the stateline.

The national seat-belt enforcement campaign will take place now through May 29, concurrent with one of the busiest travel and holiday weekends of the year. Click It or Ticket enforces seat-belt and car-seat use to keep all motorists safe.

Illinois has a 93.8 percent observed seat belt usage rate, but a disproportionate number of fatalities involve unbelted motorists and passengers.  Of the 1093 traffic deaths in 2017, where restraint use was known, 54% of those killed were not wearing seat belts.

Seat belt use drops even more in the evening hours between 6 p.m. and 5:59 a.m. That’s why one focus of the Click It or Ticket campaign is nighttime enforcement. The Rockford Police Department will be taking a no-excuses approach, writing citations day and night. Motorists caught not buckled up will be ticketed, and those caught driving impaired will be arrested. R.