'Click it or Ticket' this weekend

Local law enforcement will be increasing their presence as Memorial Day approaches.

More officers will be seen between May 18 -31 as local the Kansas Highway Patrol participates in the "Click It or Ticket" campaign.

Kansas Highway Patrol Troop H Public Resource Officer Rick Wingate said there is an increase in traffic during the holiday season which is cause for the campaign.

"We are trying to make the highways safe for everyone traveling during this holiday season," Wingate said.

Wingate said law enforcement will be looking for seat belt violations, child restraint violations, speed violations, and impaired driver violations.

"While Kansas seat belt usage has increased to 77.3 percent in recent years, we are still behind the national average of 83 percent," Superintendent of the Kansas Highway Patrol Colonel Terry Maple said. "Nearly one in four motorists in our state remains unrestrained. These people are risking serious injury or death should they be involved in a collision."

Although there will be an increase in the number of citation written because of an increase in law enforcement, Wingate said the goal of the campaign is not to write citations.

"Our main goal is not to see how many citations we can write," Wingate said. "Our main is to go out and see if we can get people to buckle up."

According to the KHP, in Kansas approximately 135 law enforcement agencies will be participating in the annual Click It or Ticket campaign. The program is targeted at reducing the number of preventable deaths and injuries that occur when unbelted drivers and passengers are involved in traffic crashes. Troopers will be aggressively enforcing seat belt, child restraint (including seat belts and child passenger safety seat), speed, and impaired driving violations.

"Anytime we can get people to put on a seat belt ... we've been successful with our campaign," Wingate said.

According to the KHP, less than 40 percent of occupants killed in traffic crashes in Kansas in 2007 were wearing their seat belt. In rural areas of the state, there are less crashes, however more fatalities come from crashes in rural areas. Statistically, rural areas in Kansas have lower seat belt compliance that urban areas.