A new Click It or Ticket campaign to issue citations for drivers not wearing a seat belts began Monday and will run through May 31.

The campaign is sponsored by the Colorado State Patrol, local law-enforcement agencies and the Colorado Department of Transportation.

“There will be zero tolerance,” Capt. Adrian Driscoll, commander of the Colorado State Patrol office in Durango, said Monday. “We’ll add 90 to 110 extra hours, looking mainly for seat-belt violations.”

Other agencies participating in the campaign are the Durango and Cortez police departments, the Bayfield marshal and the La Plata and Montezuma county sheriff’s offices.

Under Colorado seat-belt laws, adult drivers and front-seat passengers may be cited if the vehicle is stopped for another infraction. No other reason is needed if a child is riding unrestrained. A teenage driver may be stopped for simply not using a seat restraint, and everyone in the vehicle may be cited.

In states in which drivers can be stopped for simply not using a seat belt, use of restraints is 13 to 16 percent higher than in states in which a driver must be first stopped for another violation.

Click It or Ticket is a national campaign funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In 2014, 156 people in Colorado not wearing a seat belt died in traffic accidents. In the same year, law-enforcement officers issued 8,044 citations for belt violations throughout the state, down from the 9,355 citations issued in 2013.

Three Click It or Ticket campaigns are held annually. An April campaign focuses on rural communities; in May, the focus is statewide; and in July the focus is on night driving.

Since Click It or Ticket began in 2002, seat-belt use in Colorado increased from 72 percent to a high of 82.9 percent, said Nancy Shanks, the CDOT communication manager in Durango. The figure for 2014 was 82.4 percent, she said.

daler@durangherald.com