TDS & Garland Youth Council say “Buckle Up!”

The annual Click it or Ticket campaign got its next big push of the year in Dallas on April 22, when students at Woodrow Wilson High School got the message—If you’re a teenager in a car, you should get ready to be the center of attention! Texas state troopers and your local police and sheriff’s departments will be keeping an extra close eye on you.

Click it or Ticket has been an important safety program by the Texas Department of Transportation for nearly 10 years, but this is the first year that teen drivers and passengers are a really big deal. And that’s important, for lots of reasons.

• More than half of the young drivers killed in crashes were not wearing safety belts when they crashed.
• Car crashes kill more young people than any other cause.
• Only one out of every five teenagers thinks that not wearing a safety belt is risky, and most of them admit that most of the time, they don’t buckle up.

Representing Teens in the Driver Seat and the Garland Youth Council, Adrienne Johnson and Christa Vielma spoke to Wilson High School students at the Click it or Ticket press conference and talked about why TDS is important to them and how the program can help save lives with important messages about buckling up.

“The bottom line is that Teens in the Driver Seat is about saving lives,” the girls said. “And one of the ways to start is to use your safety belt.”

At the same press conference, Dallas Police Lieutenant Scott Bratcher reminded teenagers that they had extra reasons to buckle up this year. Troopers will be handing out McDonald’s free food coupons to young drivers and passengers who are wearing safety belts. Also, you can download free music just by watching a 2-minute safety belt video at www.clickitorticketmusic.com.

Free food…free music…not to mention staying safe. That’s a lot of good reasons to Click it!