RANDY RUMFIELD tells his personal story of surviving a 2002 vehicle crash during a news conference Friday at Faulkner Park announcing the launch of the Texas Department of Transportation's "Click It or Ticket" campaign.

Randy Rumfield’s body reminds him every day about the crash that almost took his life.

The aches, pains and scars resulting from the wreck are a constant in his life, a life he credits a seat belt to saving.

“There is no good excuse for not buckling up,” he said. “It’s the best habit you will ever have.”

Photos of Rumfield’s destroyed SUV sat next to him as he told his story about being hit by a truck driver who fell asleep at the wheel near Hawkins. Behind him were 929 pairs of white shoes, a symbolic reminder of the men,

women and children from Texas who were not wearing seat belts when they were killed in automobile crashes last year.

The Texas Department of Transportation’s Tyler District showcased the traveling display Friday in Faulkner Park as it launched the annual “Click It or Ticket” campaign with a news conference and guest speakers urging the community to buckle up every time they get into a vehicle.

Stephanie Young-Kittle also shared her personal story of survival that began the night of her junior prom in 2002, when she and two friends were involved in a one-vehicle crash on their ay home.

Young-Kittle said she was driving her friend’s car when she went off the road into a culvert.

“We were all wearing our seat belts,” she said.

Young-Kittle described being rescued by first responders who thought there was no chance they had survived.

“We were all airlifted to Dallas,” she said. “I was told I would never walk again. My feet hurt very day, but I have them and the ability to walk.”

Tyler Police Officer Bill Steinmiller urged parents to buckle their children up on the way to school and on the way home no matter how far it is to the house.

Vicky Lamay of UT Health East Texas EMS said she believes if people who don’t wear their seat belts could spend one day with her and see what she sees at a traffic crash they would change their minds and put it on.

Dr. Stephen Gale, trauma director at UT Health Tyler, reiterated the statistics of how wearing a seat belt is a person’s best chance of survival in a crash.

The Click It or Ticket campaign runs from May 21 to June 3 and involves an increased effort by Texas law enforcement officers to ticket unbelted drivers and passengers.

TxDOT said statewide seat belt use has increased to nearly 92 percent, yet 929 people were not buckled up and died last year on Texas roads. Fifty-seven percent of those crashes occurred at night, according to the department.

Tyler saw nine motor vehicle traffic crashes in which unrestrained occupants sustained fatal or serious injuries in 2017. Four people were killed and five sustained serious injuries, according to TxDOT. Wearing a seat belt reduces the risk of dying in a crash by 45 percent in a passenger vehicle and up to 60 percent in a pickup, according to the department.