"Click It or Ticket" campaign is underway

Starting Monday, law enforcement officers throughout Iowa--including in Decorah and in Winneshiek County--will be conducting a two-week campaign to get motorists to always buckle up.

Iowa's seat belt compliance rate is 93 percent, one of the best of the nation.  But those in the 7 percent who don't buckle up often pay the ultimate price.  In Iowa in 2014, the last year for which complete statistics have been calculated, out of the 322 people who died in traffic fatalities, 118 of them were not using their seat belts.  In other words, although only 7 percent of motorists don't wear seat belts, 37 percent of traffic fatalities involved motorists who weren't using their seat belts.

Police are also urging drivers to make sure their back seat passengers also wear seat belts.  Rear seat passengers are three times more likely to die in a crash if they are not wearing seat belts.