H.E.A.T. Predicted For Holiday Weekend

The crackdown is on as two major highway safety campaigns, Click It or Ticket and 100 Days of Summer H.E.A.T., are underway throughout the state.

According to the Governor's Office of Highway Safety (GOHS), every year during the upcoming holiday period, law enforcement agencies join forces day and night in Georgia for an enforcement blitz that delivers the Click It or Ticket message.

Now through the Memorial Day travel period (June 5) hundreds of law enforcement officials will run roadchecks, day and night, all across the state, tracking down drivers and passengers who don’t bother to buckle-up, especially at night.

The safety experts discovered that, nighttime passenger vehicle occupants are among those least likely to buckle up and most likely to die in crashes when unrestrained. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has found that of those who died in nighttime crashes in 2009, nearly two-thirds (62 percent) were NOT wearing seatbelts at the time of their fatal crash.

“Our law enforcement community witnesses horrific car crashes every day and so many of the deaths and injuries that result from those crashes could’ve been prevented by a properly buckled safety belt,” said Director Harris Blackwood of GOHS.

According to NHTSA, 452 Georgians died in traffic crashes in 2009 because they did not click it. Statewide, almost 1,300 people were killed in traffic crashes in 2009.

“And that’s what all of our officers, troopers and deputies will be thinking of during this May enforcement campaign of Click It or Ticket. And lest you think Click It or Ticket is just an unnecessary crackdown, remember that this mobilization has helped raise the national observed safety belt usage rate to an all time high of 85 percent in 2010," added Blackwood.

In addition to the Click It or Ticket, Georgia’s 100 Days of Summer H.E.A.T. (Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic) speed and DUI enforcement campaign is in full swing.

The multi-jurisdictional traffic safety enforcement campaign safeguards motorists during the heavy summer travel period from Memorial Day through the Fourth of July and Labor Day holidays. 

For more information on the GOHS lifesaving highway safety initiatives, click here.