As you gear up for a Memorial Day Weekend excursion, or maybe even a road trip with family and friends, make sure everyone in the vehicle is buckled up for every trip.

The Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety is joining with state and local law enforcement May 24 – June 6 in the national “Click It or Ticket” enforcement campaign to highlight the importance of buckling up. Along with wearing a seat belt, officials want to remind motorists to slow down, put the phone down and never drive impaired.

For 2020, preliminary data indicates 428 individuals killed in Missouri traffic crashes were not wearing their seat belt. It is the highest number of unbuckled fatalities in Missouri during the last five years and an 18-percent increase from the year before. Seat-belt use in Missouri has consistently risen over the last two decades, but in 2020, that momentum was stopped.

Missouri’s new strategic highway safety plan, “Show-Me Zero, Driving Missouri Toward Safer Roads”, identifies four key focus areas to help reduce traffic deaths, including the importance of seat belts, car seats and motorcycle helmets. Other focus areas in the plan include distracted driving, speeding and impaired driving.

For more information on the “Show-Me Zero” plan, and to check out the Coalition’s new video promoting the plan, visit www.savemolives.com.