Perry County launches Click It or Ticket campaign ahead of Memorial Day

A seat belt ticket can be the difference between a traffic stop and a fatal crash on Perry County’s winding roads, and local officers made that point clear as they opened this year’s Click It or Ticket campaign.

Perry County law enforcement and community agencies gathered May 18 to launch Kentucky State Police Post 13’s annual push, which runs through May 31 and is tied to Memorial Day travel. The campaign is built around high-visibility enforcement, so drivers and passengers should expect more patrol attention, more stops for belt violations and a harder line on people riding unrestrained on local roads that already leave little room for error.

The stakes are stark. Kentucky said 209 of the 423 roadway deaths in motor vehicle crashes last year involved people who were not wearing a seat belt or were not properly restrained in a car seat or booster seat. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration materials say a correctly worn seat belt reduces the risk of fatal injury by 45% for front-seat occupants and by 60% for pickup truck, SUV and minivan occupants, a reminder that the issue is not symbolic. It is about whether a crash becomes survivable.

Post 13, headquartered in Hazard, serves Breathitt, Knott, Leslie, Letcher and Perry counties, so the enforcement window stretches well beyond one county line. Kentucky’s Office of Highway Safety has also leaned on Local Heroes, a community-centered multimedia effort that began in 2017 and has drawn more than 121 law enforcement agencies, including officers, deputies and troopers from state, city and county departments. In counties like Perry, where residents often drive long distances for work, school, shopping and medical care, that mix of enforcement and outreach is meant to reach the people most likely to spend time on rural routes, secondary roads and holiday traffic corridors.

The state has paired similar enforcement with child passenger safety outreach before. In 2024, Post 13’s kickoff was set for 100 Justice Drive in Hazard, followed by a free child safety seat inspection at Hazard Walmart on 120 Daniel Boone Plaza, an approach that underscores how seat-belt enforcement often extends to the youngest passengers as summer travel begins. For Perry County, the message entering Memorial Day week was plain: buckle up, or expect to hear from officers before a crash makes the choice for you.