Crime & Safety

Mentor Girl Wins Seat Belt Poster Contest

Halle Sell, a Sterling Morton student, won the contest this weekend during Law Day at Great Lakes Mall

Halle Sell, a third grader at , won Mentor Police's annual .

The poster contest is part of local police's efforts to promote the returning Click It Or Ticket program in which officers will crack down on drivers and passengers who do not wear their seat belt.

Starting May 21, the Lake County Safe Communities Coalition will join with other state and local law enforcement officers to help save more lives by strongly enforcing seat belt laws around the clock.

Seat belt use saves thousands of lives across America each year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics said that in 2010, seat belts saved about 12,546 lives nationwide.

Find out what's happening in Mentorwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

However, too many motorists got a tough reminder in 2010. According to NHTSA, 51 percent of the 22,187 passengers killed in motor vehicle crashes were not wearing seat belts at the time of their crashes.

In Ohio, that number was even higher at 61 percent.

Younger motorists and men are particularly at risk. NHTSA data showed that of the 18- to 34-year-olds who were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes, 62 percent were not buckled up at the time of the crash in 2010 – the highest percentage of any age group.

Find out what's happening in Mentorwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Furthermore, that number jumps to 66 percent when just men in this age group
are included.

In Lake County, the local Click It or Ticket Campaign kicked off Saturday during Law Day at the .

During Law Day, residents had the opportunity to .


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.

More from Mentor