Congratulations!  The Memorial Day……..

The Memorial Day 2002 campaign was the most successful so far. The recent availability of federal funds under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) supported paid advertisement campaigns and took seat belt enforcement campaigns to a new level. NHTSA's National Occupant Protection Use Survey (NOPUS) measured a 2 percentage point increase in seat belt use in June 2002 to 32 percent, the highest yet nationwide. This means 3 out of 4 motorists are wearing their seat belt across the nation, but 9 out of 10 are buckling up in some states.

A 2-percentage point increase in belt use translates into an additional 6 million users. An estimated 500 lives per year will be saved as a result of the increase.

Some of the strongest gains in seat belt use were in the states participating in the nationwide "Click It or Ticket" enforcement campaign around the Memorial Day holiday. A total of 30 states participated in the campaign.

TEA-21 required NHTSA to evaluate the effectiveness of paid media efforts in increasing seat belt use. Evaluation of Click It or Ticket Model Programs (www.nhtsa.dot.gov) documents Click It or Ticket programs in 18 states. The ten states that followed the full implementation Click It or Ticket model, (5 weeks of earned media, 2 weeks of paid media, 2 weeks of intensive enforcement, plus belt use observation surveys and public awareness surveys) were compared to 4 states that conducted belt use enforcement but with limited specific paid advertisement placement, and 4 other states that conducted enforcement but without specific paid advertisement placement.

Belt use increased +8.6 percentage points averaged across the 10 CIOT states, +2.7 percentage points across the 4 limited paid media states, and +0.5 percentage points across the 4 states using no specific paid advertisement placement. Vermont led the states in posting an impressive 19 percentage point increase in belt use, followed by West Virginia (+15.1 percent). Among the Other Implementation group, Ohio (+6.1 percent) and Rhode Island (+6 percent) increased the most; and New York (+4.5 percent) among the comparison locales.

• 11,300 law enforcement agencies participated in the Mobilization - 12 states had 100 percent participation
• 29 states and the District of Columbia adopted the Click It or Ticket slogan
• 23 states and the District of Columbia aired paid advertising using Click It or Ticket in support of the enforcement wave
• 37 states did paid advertising in support of the Mobilization
• Nearly 18,000 seat belt checkpoints were conducted nationwide
• Over 425,000 citations were issued for seat belt violations
• About 57,000 paid TV ads and 145,000 paid radio ads ran in support of the Mobilization.
• Media coverage far surpassed all previous Mobilizations: more than 2,100 local TV news stories, more than 1,000 local print stories nationwide and more than 8,000 radio stories on 2,700 stations.