Statewide Click It or Ticket enforcement begins today
News Release
Statewide — A seatbelt crackdown will occur across the state from May 18 to 31 as the busy summer travel season approaches. During this time, law enforcement will increase patrols and focus on issuing citations to unbuckled drivers as part of the national Click It or Ticket campaign. Drivers can also be ticketed for unbuckled passengers. The Colorado Department of Transportation will support Colorado State Patrol and 48 local law enforcement agencies during this enforcement period.
“No other safety feature in your vehicle is more effective in reducing your risk of dying in a crash than wearing a seat belt, and it takes about three seconds,” said Col. Matthew C. Packard, chief of the Colorado State Patrol. “The reality is that 191 people died in Colorado in 2025 while not wearing a seat belt. Their lives might have been saved if they invested three seconds in safety and buckled up.”
Colorado’s average seat belt use rate is 90.7%, yet those who don’t buckle up account for more than half of passenger vehicle fatalities. So far this year, 40 unbuckled vehicle passengers and drivers have died on Colorado roads, representing 51% of all passenger vehicle fatalities. This has been a concerning trend for the last several years.
| Year | Total Passenger Vehicle Fatalities | Unbuckled | Percent Unbuckled |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 401 | 191 | 48% |
| 2024 | 374 | 189 | 51% |
| 2023 | 410 | 214 | 52% |
| 2022 | 466 | 231 | 50% |
| 2021 | 436 | 227 | 52% |
| Total | 2,087 | 1,052 | 50.4% |
A data table showing passenger vehicle fatalities from 2021 to 2025. Over this period, there were 2,087 total fatalities, with 1,052 of those individuals being unbuckled. The percentage of unbuckled fatalities consistently hovered around 50%, peaking at 52% in 2021 and 2023.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that wearing a seat belt reduces the risk of severe injury or death by up to 65%.
“Buckling up should be an automatic habit for all drivers,” said CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew. “Increasing seat belt use is one of the most important steps we can take to reduce fatalities in Colorado.”
During the April seat belt enforcement period last month, law enforcement officers issued 770 tickets for seat belt violations, including 27 citations for improperly restrained children. The law enforcement agencies that issued the most tickets during the enforcement were Larimer County Sheriff's Office (118), Jefferson County Sheriff's Office (70), Thornton Police Department (54).
After the May enforcement period, the next seat belt enforcement will take place from July 20 to 31. Learn more about CDOT’s latest seat belt PSAs, highlighting the most unforgiving laws of all — physics.
Colorado’s Seat Belt Laws
Colorado law requires drivers and front-seat passengers to wear a seat belt whenever the vehicle is in operation.
- Adults — Colorado has a secondary enforcement law for adult drivers and front-seat passengers. Drivers can be ticketed for violating the seat belt law if they are stopped for another traffic violation.
- Teens — Colorado’s Graduated Drivers Licensing (GDL) law requires all drivers under 18 and their passengers, regardless of their ages, to wear seat belts. This is a primary enforcement, meaning teens can be pulled over simply for not wearing a seatbelt or having passengers without seat belts.
- Children — Colorado's Child Passenger Safety law is a primary enforcement, meaning the driver can be stopped and ticketed if an officer sees an unrestrained or improperly restrained child under the age of 18 in the vehicle.
- Fines for not buckling up in Colorado start at $65, and parents or caregivers caught with an improperly restrained child can receive a minimum fine of $82. Caregivers may face additional charges if the law is not followed and the child is injured.
