TRENTON – Attorney General Jennifer Davenport and the Division of Highway Traffic Safety today announced the start of New Jersey’s annual “Click It or Ticket” campaign, a statewide high-visibility enforcement and public awareness effort to increase seat belt use and reduce preventable deaths and injuries on New Jersey roadways.
This year’s “Click It or Ticket” campaign will overlap with Memorial Day weekend, one of the busiest travel periods of the year. In New Jersey, the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day has historically been a dangerous time on the roads, with increased travel and a heightened risk of crashes.
Increased patrols will be conducted across the state May 18-31. Officers will be looking for unbuckled drivers and passengers and checking that children are properly secured in appropriate car seats or booster seats or using seat belts. This campaign is part of a nationwide effort to emphasize that proper restraint use is effective and saves lives.
To support this effort, the Division of Highway Traffic Safety is providing $774,760 in grant funding to 113 law enforcement agencies in New Jersey for seat belt enforcement, child passenger restraint compliance, and related public awareness activities.
Ventnor, Longport and Atlantic City are among the grant recipients that will be conducting extra patrols.
“Compliance with New Jersey’s seat belt and child passenger safety laws is a critical public safety priority,” Davenport said in a release. “As New Jersey works toward a future with zero roadway fatalities, we must do everything we can to protect ourselves and our passengers, particularly the youngest and most vulnerable. Every driver and passenger can take one immediate step to protect themselves and others: buckle up and make sure every child is properly secured on every trip.”
Under New Jersey law, drivers and passengers are required to wear seat belts, and drivers are responsible for ensuring that passengers under the age of 18 are properly restrained. Children under age 8 and shorter than 57 inches must be secured in the appropriate child passenger restraint system, based on the child’s age, height, and weight. While seat belt use remains high in New Jersey, safety officials continue to emphasize that every seating position matters, including the back seat, and that child restraints must be used correctly to provide their full lifesaving benefit.
Front-seat seat belt use in New Jersey reached nearly 95% following last year’s “Click It or Ticket” campaign, according to an annual observational study conducted by the New Jersey Institute of Technology and funded by the Division of Highway Traffic Safety. That is four percentage points higher than the national average.
“New Jersey has made important progress, and most drivers understand that seat belts save lives,” said Michael J. Rizol Jr., Director of the Division of Highway Traffic Safety. “But there is still more work to do. Everyone should buckle up, no matter where they are seated. While front-seat seat belt use remains high, too many back-seat passengers continue to ride unrestrained. One unbuckled passenger puts everyone in the vehicle at risk. Everyone needs to buckle up, and every child needs to be properly restrained, every seat, every trip.”
In 2024, 135 people killed in New Jersey crashes were not wearing seat belts, and unrestrained occupants accounted for 43% of all vehicle occupant fatalities. Among those unrestrained fatalities, one in four people were between the ages of 21 to 30.
During the 2025 “Click It or Ticket” campaign, participating agencies issued 5,352 seat belt summonses, 2,624 speeding summonses, and 706 cell phone violations. Those results reflect the broader safety focus of high-visibility enforcement efforts, which identify and deter dangerous driving behaviors and restraint violations that contribute to crashes, injuries, and fatalities.
The Division of Highway Traffic Safety will continue to coordinate and fund additional enforcement initiatives during the summer months, including efforts targeting speeding, impaired driving, and violations of New Jersey’s Move Over law.
The Division of Highway Traffic Safety urges everyone traveling in New Jersey to make restraint use automatic. Buckle up before the vehicle moves, require every passenger to do the same, and make sure children are secured in the right car seat, booster seat, or seat belt for their age and size.
Atlantic County
Absecon $2,800
Atlantic City $8,750
Atlantic County Sheriff $2,100
Brigantine $3,500
Egg Harbor Township $8,750
Galloway Township $8,750
Hamilton Township $8,750
Hammonton $4,200
Longport $2,100
Mullica Township $7,000
Northfield $2,800
Pleasantville $2,800
Ventnor $2,800
Leave a Reply