NEW PHILADEPHIA (Tusco TV) - The local highway patrol post is getting ahead of the summer travel season with a reminder for people to buckle up every time they hit the road.

New Philadelphia Post Commander Lt. Mark Glennon say troopers will be on the lookout for unbuckled drivers and passengers during their traffic stops as part of the nationwide Click it or Ticket enforcement campaign that started earlier this week and runs through June 2nd. He says this is something they do at the beginning of every summer.

“We’re trying to get people to understand that seatbelts save lives and that you need to wear your seatbelt,” he says. “If you don’t wear your seatbelt here, if you’re stopped for any other reason and you don’t have it on, we will issue you a citation.”

Glennon says the post will also be conducting community seatbelt checks in partnership with the local safe communities coalitions to generate more awareness and reward folks who remember to buckle up. 

“Safe Communities here in Tusc County and also over in Carroll County put out some educational stuff and they do some things with the schools and other places as far as seatbelt checks and they’ll pass out some coupons for free food and stuff like that if people are wearing their seatbelts,” he says. 

Statewide data shows more than 1,300 traffic deaths in the last three years in which seatbelts were available but not in use. Sixty-five of those deaths were in Tuscarawas County.