State's Click It Ot Ticket Campaign Under Way

The statewide event increases awareness and enforcement of using seat belts.

Highway safety officials say the campaign is working and they have the numbers to back it up.

North Carolina has one of highest seat belt usage rates in the nation at 83% for drivers. When Click It or Ticket began in 1993 only 65 percent of drivers used a seat belt.

Since 1993, deadly crashes have gone down by 14 percent saving $135 million in health care-related costs.

Officials will now focus on passengers who do not buckle up at the same rate as drivers.