Governor’s Office of Highway Safety Kick Off “Join the Click” Campaign

By MJ Kneiser, News Director of 92.1 WLHR

The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, Georgia State Patrol, and AAA Georgia are asking all motorists to ‘Join the Click’ and buckle their seat belts before heading to family and friends for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The Thanksgiving holiday travel period begins Wednesday, November 26, at 6 p.m. and ends Sunday, November 30, at midnight.

As they do every year, the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety says it will work with local law enforcement to enforce seat belt and child passenger safety.

Seat belts and car safety seats for small children are the most important safety equipment in every vehicle, and all vehicle safety features are designed to be most effective when the vehicle occupants are properly restrained.

According to Alan Poole, the Director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, seat belts save an estimated 15,000 lives each year, and more could be saved if everyone wore a seat belt on every trip.

And that’s why he’s asking motorists this holiday weekend to “Join the Click.”

Additionally, some holiday celebrations and reunions will include alcoholic beverages, and the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety joins Col. William Hitchens, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Safety, in reminding everyone to have a sober, designated driver lined up when the plans include alcoholic beverages.

During the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in 2023, there were 309 passenger vehicle occupants killed in traffic crashes across the nation, and 44% (135) were unrestrained.

Not wearing a seat belt proved to be deadly at any time of the day during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in 2023: 47% of those killed in nighttime crashes were unbuckled, and 38% of those killed in daytime crashes also were unbuckled.