Newtown Police Department is reminding motorists to “Click It Or Ticket.” As part of a national seatbelt enforcement campaign, law enforcement agencies around the country will be stepping up enforcement just ahead of one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. The current campaign was launched November 23, and will continue to November 30.

“Every day, unbuckled motorists are losing their lives in motor vehicle crashes,” said Newtown PD Sergeant Douglas Wisentaner. “As we approach Thanksgiving and the holiday season, we want to make sure people are doing the one thing that can save them in a crash: buckling up.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly half of the 21,132 passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2013 were unrestrained.

Between the hours of 6 pm and 5:59 am, that number soared to 59 percent of those killed. This is why one focus of the “Click It Or Ticket” campaign is night-time enforcement. Participating law enforcement agencies will be taking a no-excuses approach to seatbelt law enforcement, writing citations day and night.

Nearly twice as many males were killed in crashes as compared to females, with lower seatbelt use rates, too. Of males killed in crashes in 2013, more than half (54%) were unrestrained. For females killed in crashes, 41 percent were not buckled up.

“We want to make sure people are doing the one thing that can save them in a crash, buckling up,” said Sgt Wisentaner.

“If you ask the family members of those unrestrained people who were killed in crashes, they’ll tell you: they wish their loved ones had buckled up,” he added. “The bottom line is that seatbelts save lives. If these enforcement crackdowns get people’s attention, and get them to buckle up, then we’ve done our job.”