Click it or Ticket

"Click it or Ticket" is the catchy national phrase used to encourage people to use their seat belts. I am a habitual seat belt user.  Sometimes, when I purchase gasoline at the Murphy gas pumps in the Wal-Mart parking lot, I think I will not buckle up to drive from the pump to the parking spot I choose.  Uh-uh.  By habit almost always I buckle up without realizing it. In some respects that is good, because I automatically buckle up.  But, on the other hand, am I paying attention to what I do? I think not.

Locally, we have been advised that the funding to have police officers patrolling for seat belt compliance has been decreased http://lubbockonline.com/crime-and-courts/2011-05-21/click-it-or-ticket-campaign-lose .

According to this story, the seat belt usage in Lubbock has decreased.  Why? I know seat belts are not especially comfortable, but the human damage to vehicle users who are using seat belts is so overwhelmingly less than the human damage to those in vehicles who do not use seat belts.  I know this is not 100% true, but the percentages do favor seat belt use.