Motorists urged to 'Click It' or get a ticket

SANDY — Donna Hansen hates going to the grocery store because she has less food to buy than she did just two years ago.

It's hard going to church because there's one less face to watch over. Mostly, she hates that there are now moments of quiet in her life since her 13-year-old son was killed in a traffic accident because he wasn't wearing his seat belt.

"Every day, I feel his absence," she said.

Monday, Hansen, with one of her two other sons, 12-year-old Clayton, sitting nearby, urged motorists to wear their seat belts, especially young people. Her message was part of the kickoff of the annual "Click It or Ticket" seat belt campaign.

With the first big three-day holiday weekend of the summer coming up, local law enforcers say they are going to crack down on people who fail to wear their seat belts.

"It is a no-tolerance policy. We will be ticketing you if you don't have your seat belt on," warned Sandy Police Chief Steve Chapman.

Nationwide, people between the ages of 15 and 24 are reported to be the worst age group for seat belt usage, said Department of Public Safety Commissioner Lance Davenport. They are also the group with the highest fatality rate among people involved in car accidents.

In October 2008, the Hansen family, of Spanish Fork, was driving to Las Vegas on a family trip. Donna Hansen said she always made her children wear seat belts. But Calvin was going through a rebellious teenage time and would occasionally unbuckle his, she said.

During their trip, their car left the road and rolled three times. Calvin, who had unbuckled his seat belt without his mother's knowledge, was tossed from the vehicle and killed instantly. His brothers, mother and father all received relatively minor injuries or were uninjured. They were all buckled in.

In the days and weeks that followed, all of Calvin's schoolmates were in mourning, as well as his family. Even today, many of his friends still visit his gravesite.

"I just wanted to scream to the world, 'Wear your seat belts,' " Hansen said tearfully. "If Calvin had been wearing his seat belt, he'd be here today."

She said if she could stress just one thing to juveniles, it's that if they are killed in a traffic accident, they aren't the only ones affected; it affects everyone ever associated them.