COLORADO SPRINGS — Fewer people in Colorado wear their seat belts compared to other states, with the national seat belt use average and 90% and Colorado's at 86.3%.
From April 4 through April 20, the Colorado Department of Transportation will be running the federally-funded Click It or Ticket heightened enforcement campaign.
Colorado State Patrol and other law enforcement agencies, including the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, will be cracking down on seat belt wearing.
However, Colorado law prohibits officers from pulling a driver over solely for not wearing a seat belt.
If a driver is pulled over for another offense, such as speeding or expired tags, and an officer notices the driver is not wearing a seat belt, the officer will issue a citation no matter what.
"This enforcement is not about giving out tickets and telling people to buckle up after they get pulled over... We want everyone knowing this enforcement period is happening over the next couple of weeks, really for the rest of their lives," said Sam Cole, CDOT Communications Manager.
In Colorado, seat belt laws are:
- Adults — Colorado has a secondary enforcement law for adult drivers and front-seat passengers. Drivers can be ticketed for violating the seat belt law if they are stopped for another traffic violation.
- Teens — Colorado’s Graduated Drivers Licensing (GDL) law requires all drivers under 18 and their passengers, regardless of their age, to wear seat belts. This is a primary enforcement, meaning teens can be pulled over simply for not wearing a seat belt or having passengers without seat belts.
- Children — Colorado's Child Passenger Safety law is a primary enforcement, meaning the driver can be stopped and ticketed if an officer sees an unrestrained or improperly restrained child under age 16 in the vehicle.
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