TO THE EDITOR:

It's Click It Or Ticket time in Georgia and anyone who complains about getting a ticket for not buckling-up deserves a crash-course in road-reality even though the numbers often seem surreal. Across the country, more than 14-thousand passenger vehicle occupants weren't wearing their seatbelts when they were killed in crashes in 2007. It's tragic because the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates seatbelts saved as many as 15,147 lives that same year. And yet, One-in-five Americans still fails to buckle-up regularly!

While all this can sometimes just sound like statistics, the Governor's Office of Highway Safety and our law enforcement partners know from personal experience that behind those numbers are actual faces of mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, children and friends from right here in Georgia. Too many families talk to us about the losses that could have been prevented if loved ones only wore their safetybelts.

Now we're only days away from Memorial Day and that signals the unofficial start of Summer. In Georgia, Memorial Day isn't just about backyard barbecues and swimming pools. It's about holiday travel too. And even though Georgia has an 89- percent safetybelt use rate — the highest in the Southeast — too many of our traffic fatalities in Georgia are the ones that are still unbelted. During the 2007 Memorial Day travel period, nine-of-the-eleven crash fatality victims were not wearing seatbelts.

Truth is, some people in Georgia are still convinced they don't need seatbelts. What's worse is those people who choose to disobey the law are taking a chance not only with their lives, but with the emotional and financial health of their families, friends, and the state we call home. Death may be the ultimate consequence for not wearing a seatbelt, but even for those who escape a fatal crash, the economic cost of injuries that might have been prevented by a properly buckled seatbelt can be staggering. We all share in the tragic consequences and bear the burden of the catastrophic costs of needless injuries from traffic crashes. Every year, vehicles crashes cost the equivalent of sending an $800- invoice to every person in this country!

This goes to the heart of our mission to protect the public. It's why we join every year with hundreds of our state and local law enforcement agencies and highway safety partners to step-up high-visibility safetybelt enforcement on Georgia roads. Traffic enforcement officers will be out in force this May to show their dedication to solving this problem. We want 100-percent of Georgia drivers and passengers to buckle-up. Buckling up costs you nothing, but the costs of NOT buckling up may be a ticket or worse…your life. Treat this as a tough and potentially life-saving reminder: Click It or Ticket! Because in Georgia, if you don't click it, expect a ticket!

I've said it before and I'll say it again. It's not about writing tickets. It's about saving lives. And I'll keep saying it until we stop seeing needless deaths on our roads because drivers and passengers won't invest the three seconds it takes to buckle-up.

Don't let your Memorial Day weekend end with a memorial service for someone you love.

Click It or Ticket!