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Justin Harding, chief of staff to Gov. Gary Herbert, received some unusual advice from his church leader when he was married: "Always wear your seat belts."

"We were a little bit underwhelmed," he says. But last Jan. 16, that probably saved him and his family.

On that busy Saturday morning, he was driving on Wasatch Boulevard near Big Cottonwood Canyon. In the opposite lane, a frustrated driver stuck in heavy ski-resort traffic attempted an illegal U-turn in front of him.

"I had no time to react," Harding said. The cars slammed head-on. His minivan was totaled, and its engine even was pushed partially inside the vehicle. But Harding and four children in the car received only scratches.

"Had we all not been properly restrained, we all would have been seriously injured," and he and a teenage daughter in the front seats "could have been killed."

Harding told the story Monday as the Utah Highway Patrol kicked off its annual "Click It or Ticket" campaign to encourage more seat-belt use before the often-deadly Memorial Day weekend. The Highway Patrol will add 1,000 shifts over the next two weeks to focus specifically on seat-belt enforcement.

Highway Patrol Superintendent Daniel Fuhr said the seat belt is the most important safety device in a vehicle — and reduces the chance of death in a crash by 70 percent — but too many people still fail to use it.

In Harding's case, Fuhr said, "Everything worked. The crash bumper on his vehicle worked and absorbed impact. The design of his vehicle absorbed the impact. The air bags went off."

Still, he said, family members were saved mainly "because they did one simple thing. They took that seat belt and clicked it, and they had it on. Had that not been the case, then those devices in place may have caused him more harm than good."

Fuhr said two horrific accidents this month show what happens when seat belts are not worn. On May 11, five members of a Nebraska family were killed in a rollover on Interstate 70 when none wore seat belts. On Sunday, a teenager was killed in a St. George rollover and another was critically injured.

They "are dead because they were ejected from the vehicle," Fuhr said.

"The [crashes] were survivable. That's what gets to our hearts when we go to these crashes and see a vehicle that's intact, and these people should be alive and now they are dead because they have been tossed from the vehicle," he said.

Failure to wear a seat belt is the leading cause of traffic deaths in Utah.

"About 50 percent of the fatal accidents that we handle are from people who are not properly restrained," he said. He said surveys show about 13 percent of Utahns do not wear seat belts, but they are involved in half of all fatal accidents.

A new law passed last year seems to have boosted the seat-belt usage rate slightly — from 84.6 percent to 87.2 percent, he said.

The new law makes failure to wear a seat belt a primary offense, meaning officers can stop and cite people for the lapse. Before that passed, Utah had a "secondary" law for those 18 and older. A $45 ticket could be issued only when an officer stopped a vehicle for another reason.

He hopes the new law plus the Click It or Ticket campaign will help reduce fatalities as the summer travel season begins.

"This absolutely is not about generating revenue. This is 100 percent about this picture here," Fuhr said pointing to Harding and his family. "Of families being together and coming home safe even after horrific crashes."

Last year, the Click or Ticket campaign led the Highway Patrol to pull over 6,600 people — where they issued 6,180 warnings, 276 citations and 171 child restraint warnings.

Harding urges people to buckle up for every trip, and teach their children to do so "they will make it habit, and it becomes second-nature to them."

Those who do not buckle up might get a personal visit from Fuhr.

"I've made a commitment that I will never allow an individual to pass me without a seatbelt on without having an educational stop," he said.

On the bright side, he adds, "It's kind of hard for me to find individuals who are not wearing seat belts these days. It brings me some hope."