By By ROBERT BLANKENSHIP
Advance Managing Editor
The Escambia County Sheriff's Office is giving drivers an option: "Click-It or Ticket."
During a nation-wide campaign that will last from now through September, a special federal grant will help pay deputies overtime to work after their normal hours with the emphasis being on seat belts and child restraint usage.
Research conducted by the Alabama Department of Public Health during 1999 and 2000 put the state average for seat belt usage at 71 percent.
Not only is Escambia County the lowest, it is the only county to decrease in seat belt usage from 1999 to 2000.
Finding the stats hard to believe, Hawsey said the ECSO conducted its own study.