The Morgan County Sheriff’s Office is working with the West Virginia Governor’s Highway Safety Program to urge drivers to buckle up ahead of the statewide Click It or Ticket high-visibility seat belt enforcement effort, that runs Friday, March 7 through Sunday, March 23. 
The Morgan County Sheriff’s Department want seat belts to be an automatic habit for drivers and passengers alike. It’s not just a safe thing to do — it’s the law.
During the Click It or Ticket campaign, the Sheriff Department will be working with our fellow law enforcement officers across local and state lines to ensure the message gets out to drivers and passengers. Buckling up is the simplest thing you can do to limit injury or save your life during a crash. Our agencies see the results of not wearing a seat belt all the time, the loss of life. So often, it could have been prevented.
The national seat belt use rate in 2023 was 91.9%, which is good — but it can be better. The other 8.1% still need to be reminded that seat belts save lives. In West Virginia, the seat belt use rate in 2024 was 91.98%. The rate in Morgan County was 92.4%, and while that is better than the state and national rates, 7.6% of drivers and passengers in Morgan County still need to be reached.
Participating law enforcement agencies will be taking a no-excuses approach to seat belt law enforcement, writing citations day and night.
One focus of the Click It or Ticket campaign is nighttime enforcement.
NHTSA data shows a higher number of unrestrained passenger vehicle occupant fatalities happen at night. Also, seat belt use differs among females and males. Of the males killed in crashes in 2021, more than half (54%) were unrestrained. For females killed in crashes, 42% were not buckled up.
If the enforcement effort alerts people to the dangers of unrestrained driving, consider our mission to be a success.
If you know a friend or a family member who does not buckle up when they drive, ask them to consider changing their habits. Help us spread this lifesaving message before one more friend or family member is killed as a result of this senseless inaction.
Seat belts save lives, and everyone — front seat and back, child and adult — needs to remember to buckle up.
For more information on the Click It or Ticket seat belt enforcement mobilization, visit NHTSA.gov/ClickIt. For more information from the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office, call 304-258-1067.
