You’ve been seeing the signs and digital road board postings for years - and you know how important it is to do it, yet despite the fact that 83 percent of Americans now wear their seatbelts regularly - the highest percentage ever, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration - police officers still manage to ticket tons of drivers for not buckling up.

This Memorial Day weekend, traffic enforcement nationwide is cracking down - and they mean business. According to the Dallas Morning News, the police force is going to have an extra 20 officers patrolling the streets this weekend - and they’ll be looking hard for seatbelt violations.

Though often the cops are thought of as bad guys, in the case of this Click It or Ticket campaign, they truly are trying to save lives by issuing the violations. According to the NHTSA’s Click It or Ticket 2008 statistics, a projected 9,000 people will die in car crashes this year because they didn’t “Click It.”

On the other hand, 15,000 lives were saved in 2005 because of increased wearing of seat belts. Not only will you avoid a ticket if you buckle up, but you could prevent serious injury and death - just in case something unthinkable did happen.

If you are in a car accident wearing your seat belt and you suffer injuries, you might be able to collect money for your medical expenses and other personal injury expenses - assuming you aren’t at fault.

“Clicking” your seat belt will do a lot more than save your money - it will save your life. So buckle up this weekend when you now there are extra officers out on the road - and just remember: Click it, or ticket!