Click It to avoid a Ticket

State troopers and local law enforcement are asking everyone to make the summer travel season a safe one this year by remembering to click their seat belt or risk being handed a ticket, says Lt. Maurice Raines with the Georgia State Patrol.  “The first thing I am going to ask you to do is put down the cellphone.  Stop texting while driving because we do not want to respond to your texts with an ambulance or law enforcement.  We ask the motoring public to put the cell phone down and drive the car.  We also ask that you slow down.  Be late.  Show up late.  At least you will arrive, but if you take a chance with speed, you can take your life or someone else’s life.  And we do ask you that you buckle up.  It just may save a life.  And kids being buckled in a car seat means that is valuable cargo that you ought to want to protect.  You say that you love them so show them that you love them by making sure they are in the car seats.  I want you to know we will be out.  We will be out in force.  If you decide to drink and drive, we will take you to the house.  It will just not be your house.  It will be our house to make sure you don’t endanger others by being impaired.”  Preliminary data from the Georgia Department of Transportation shows the number of people killed in traffic crashes through the first four months of 2021 is 18 percent higher than for the same time period last year, and 60 percent of those killed in traffic crashes so far this year in Georgia were not wearing seat belts.