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Nov. 25, 2025 - Law enforcement officers across Louisiana are handing out citations to anyone in a car, truck, SUV, or van who isn’t wearing a seat belt during the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission’s Click It or Ticket campaign, now through Saturday, Nov. 29.
The goal of the campaign is to keep travelers safe during the Thanksgiving season. Drivers and passengers who don’t buckle up could get a $50 ticket.
“Everyone in the vehicle must be buckled up,” LHSC Executive Director Lisa Freeman said. “The seat belt law applies to everyone, whether you’re driving, in the back seat, or in the back row of an SUV.”
Seat belt violations are a primary offense in Louisiana, meaning that a law enforcement officer can stop a vehicle solely because the officer observed one or more people in the vehicle not wearing a seat belt. During the busy Thanksgiving travel season, law enforcement agencies have placed extra officers and deputies on the roads just to enforce Louisiana’s seat belt law.
Wearing a seat belt is the most important action a vehicle occupant can take to protect themselves in a crash, Freeman said. Recent analysis of Louisiana crash statistics and seat belt observational survey results shows that properly using a seat belt can increase a driver’s chances of surviving a crash by nearly ten times.
In 2024, 367 drivers were killed in crashes in Louisiana. Although 88.4% of drivers wear their seat belts, 56.1% of the drivers who died were not buckled up, Freeman said.
“A small minority of drivers, less than 12%, comprised the majority of driver fatalities last year,” Freeman said. “There is a direct correlation between wearing your seat belt and surviving a crash.”
The statistics from the Center for Analytics and Research in Transportation Safety at LSU show that at least 55.3% of all occupants who died in motor vehicle crashes in Louisiana last year were not properly wearing their seat belts.
“Our goal with Click It or Ticket is to reach that small group of drivers and passengers who won’t wear their seat belts,” Freeman said. “If saving their life isn’t enough of an incentive, perhaps the chance of losing $50 will do it.”
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