Click It or Ticket Campaign runs May 22 to June 4 in Fremont County

Fremont County Law Enforcement will show zero tolerance

For a second straight year, law enforcement agencies in Fremont County will join forces for a traffic safety enforcement campaign over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

The multi-agency effort will include the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, Wyoming Highway Patrol and the Riverton, Lander, Shoshoni and Wind River police departments.

Fremont County law enforcement will be enforcing seat belt use in conjunction with the national seat belt campaign taking place May 22 through June 4 during one of the busiest travel and holiday weekends of the year. Fremont County law enforcement is reminding motorists to Click It or Ticket.

“Wearing your seat belt is the law, and it just makes sense,” said Lt. Alan McOmie of the Lander Police Department. “So many deaths and injuries can be avoided by taking just a second or two to buckle up.”

As the Memorial Day weekend approaches and the summer vacation season begins, “We want to make sure people are wearing their seat belts. It’s the one thing you can do to save your life in a crash,” McOmie said.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly half of the 22,441 passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2015 were unrestrained. At night from 6 p.m. to 5:59 a.m., that number soared to 57 percent of those killed. That’s why one focus of the Click It or Ticket campaign is nighttime enforcement. Participating law enforcement agencies will be taking a no-excuses approach to seat belt law enforcement, writing citations day and night.

“In 2015, all 14 of the traffic fatalities on Fremont County roads and highways were not wearing a seat belt.” said McOmie. Nationally, almost twice as many males were killed in crashes as compared to females, with lower belt use rates, too. Of the males killed in crashes in 2015, more than half (52 percent) were unrestrained. For females killed in crashes, 42 percent were not buckled up.

“Did you know someone who was killed in a crash because they did not buckle up?” asked Pete Abrams of the WYDOT Highway Safety Office in Cheyenne. “Help us spread this life-saving message before one more friend or family member is killed because of not wearing a seat belt. Seat belts save lives, and everyone—front seat and back, child and adult—needs to remember to buckle up, every trip, every time.”

As of this release, there have been 35 traffic deaths in Wyoming in 2017, compared to 18 this time last year.

For more information on the Click It or Ticket mobilization, please visit the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's website.