Examples from most recent independent evaluation: 1999.
Access
Results from a telephone survey taken after the first year of the Click It or Ticket programme indicated that 76 percent of North Carolina citizens were aware of stepped-up enforcement of belt use and child restraint laws. Of those that knew about the programme, 88 percent said they specifically knew about the belt use checkpoints.
Attitudes
Survey results showed that, of those who knew about the programme, 57 percent said that it had made them buckle up more often; 86 percent of all of those surveyed said that they favored programmes to increase seat belt use.
Practices
As a direct result of the Click It or Ticket campaign, the average seat-belt usage rate in North Carolina jumped from 65 percent to over 80 percent in the first six months of the program, and currently stands at 84 percent. The dramatic increase in seat-belt usage has led to a 14 percent reduction in fatal and serious highway injuries and a corresponding savings of $125 million in health care-related costs since the programme began in 1993. The decrease in the number and severity of auto injuries also resulted in a $33 million reduction in insurance premiums paid to North Carolina auto insurers.
When the communication was withdrawn and the enforcement left in place, seat belt use dropped dramatically. Once the communication component was restored, compliance went back up.
Associated Impacts
Because of the Click It or Ticket's system of checkpoints throughout the state, law enforcement officials have discovered more than 56,000 other auto-related criminal offences since the programme's start, including stolen vehicles, felony drug violations, illegal firearms, and fugitives from justice. During a three-week period of the first year, police officers discovered 1,829 driving while intoxicated (DWI) violations and 2,043 drivers with revoked licenses. Funds generated as a result of these offenses and the more than 200,000 seat belt citations, which amounted to $1.6 million after the first year alone, go to benefit local public schools across the state.
Source
Social Marketing Institute site.
For full evaluation and more information, contact:
Erica Hinton, Deputy Public Information Officer
Governor's Highway Safety Program
215 East Lane St.
Raleigh, North Carolina 27601 USA
Tel.: (919) 733-3083
Fax: (919) 733-0604
emhinton@dot.state.nc.us
North Carolina Governor's Highway Safety Program site.
Survey results showed that, of those who knew about the programme, 57 percent said that it had made them buckle up more often; 86 percent of all of those surveyed said that they favored programmes to increase seat belt use.
As a direct result of the Click It or Ticket campaign, the average seat-belt usage rate in North Carolina jumped from 65 percent to over 80 percent in the first six months of the program, and currently stands at 84 percent. The dramatic increase in seat-belt usage has led to a 14 percent reduction in fatal and serious highway injuries and a corresponding savings of $125 million in health care-related costs since the programme began in 1993. The decrease in the number and severity of auto injuries also resulted in a $33 million reduction in insurance premiums paid to North Carolina auto insurers.
When the communication was withdrawn and the enforcement left in place, seat belt use dropped dramatically. Once the communication component was restored, compliance went back up.