(AP) -- New York State Police and other law enforcement agencies across the nation have launched a two-week seat belt compliance campaign.
The statewide Buckle Up New York, Click It or Ticket campaign began yesterday as state troopers, municipal police and sheriff's deputies began conducting seat belt checkpoints and increasing their day-to-day enforcement.
Officials say in 2008 alone, seat belts saved more than 13,000 lives nationwide, including hundreds in New York state. In fatal crashes that same year, 77 percent of passenger vehicle occupants who were thrown from their vehicles were killed.
State police say the observed national seat belt usage rate rose to an all-time high of 84 percent in 2009. New York's official seat belt use rate is 88 percent.
(Copyright ©2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
