Michigan’s Click It or Ticket enforcement campaign for October may be well over, but now statistics are coming in telling how many lives may have been saved.

Preliminary reports indicate officers from 96 police departments, sheriff offices, and State Police posts in 36 counties conducted 7,227 traffic stops…

Resulting in 2,108 seat belt and child restraint citations between October 17th and Halloween.

In addition to issuing seat belt violations, officers during the Click It or Ticket campaign issued 1,199 speeding citations, made 9 alcohol-and-drug-related arrests, and 38 other felony arrests.

Michael Prince, director of the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning says “Motorists need to remember buckling up is the easiest thing they can do to reduce traffic fatalities and injuries.”

Seat belt use in Michigan stands at 94.4 percent- nearly 5 percent higher than the national seat belt use rate of 89.6 percent in 2018, according to the statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Buckling up can reduce the risk of serious injury or death in a crash by 45 percent.

In Michigan, 192 people killed in traffic crashes in 2018 were not wearing a seatbelt.