‘Click It or Ticket’ launches at 4 Wheel Jamboree

LIMA — Statistically, one of the groups of people least likely to wear a seat belt is young men in pickup trucks, officials said.With that in mind, local law enforcement and safety officials chose the Lucas Oil 4 Wheel Jamboree at the Allen County Fairgrounds as the backdrop for the kickoff of the local “Click It or Ticket” campaign on Friday.“Where better to find young men in pickup trucks than at a 4 Wheel Jamboree,” said Evelyn Smith, coordinator of the Lima-Allen County Safe Community Coalition. “Here we are using this event as an opportunity to speak to those young men in particular but to everyone in general.”Smith said the campaign is also being launched in conjunction with the traffic and impaired driving Memorial Day blitz coordinated by the area’s various law enforcement agencies. Buckling up is important any time but is even more critical when traffic volumes are expected to pick up, Smith said.“It’s especially important over the holidays because we have so many more folks that hit the roads, even with gas prices high we’re going to have more people than normal on the roads,” she said. “It’s really important that we remind people to put on their seat belts for every trip.”Allen County Sheriff Sam Crish said the goal with the stepped up road patrols as well as the “Click It or Ticket” awareness campaign is simple — keeping people safe.“It’s very important that everyone wears their safety belt. It certainly saves lives,” Crish said. “It takes just a few seconds to put the safety belt on. It doesn’t matter the length of the trip. We just want to promote to get everyone to wear their safety belt. Our goal is to make everyone safe in our county.”You can comment on this story at www.limaohio.com.