The annual two week Buckle Up or Pay Up, Click It or Ticket mobilization began Monday. Nearly 5,000 scheduled enforcement hours in 260 seat belt enforcement zones and nighttime patrols are planned for the holiday weekend beginning today.

Enforcement campaigns like this have contributed to Michigan's high seat belt use rate and decline in fatalities. The goal is to reach out to people who are still not buckling up.

"Wearing a seat belt is the easiest way to stay safe in a crash, and yet some people don't feel it is worth the small effort to buckle up," said Michael L. Prince, Office of Highway Safety Planning director. "Forty-one percent of people who died in crashes last year were unbelted; those are deaths that may easily have been prevented."

While few seat belt enforcement activity reports are in yet, officers have arrested one fugitive and made four felony and three misdemeanor arrests as a result of seat belt enforcement activity.

Crashes involving unbelted drivers and passengers tend to have more serious consequences than those where people were wearing seat belts. In fact, wearing a seat belt can reduce the risk of serious injury or death in a crash by nearly 50 percent according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Michigan law requires all drivers, front seat passengers and passengers 15 and younger in any seating position in the vehicle to be buckled up. Children must be in a car or booster seat until they are 8 years old or 4' 9" tall, whichever comes first.

For a complete list of planned enforcement, visit www.michigan.gov/ohsp.