COLORADO — Law enforcement agencies across Colorado will begin a belt enforcement campaign in rural parts of the state starting July 15.
The Colorado Department of Transportation, along with Colorado State Patrol and local law enforcement, will begin a week long Click it or Ticket seat belt enforcement campaign.
According to CDOT, six counties with the lowest seat belt use were in rural areas. Those include Cheyenne, Delta, La Plata, Montezuma, and Chaffee.
In 2017, 410 people in passenger vehicles were killed on Colorado roads. 206 of those deaths happened in rural areas with 118 involving unbuckled drivers or passengers. Statewide in 2017, an estimated 70 lives could have been saved if everyone in Colorado buckled up.
In 2018, 220 unbuckled drivers and passengers were killed in crashes in the state, accounting for more than half of the 416 total passenger vehicle deaths. That same year, there were 632 deaths on Colorado's roads, including pedestrian, motorcyclists, and people of passenger vehicles.
Colorado's seat belt use rate is 86 percent, which is below the national average of 90 percent.
COLORADO’S SEAT BELT LAWS
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.
Fines for not buckling up in Colorado start at $65. Parents or caregivers caught with an improperly restrained child can receive a minimum fine of $82.
