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N.Y. State kicks off 'Click it or Ticket' campaign

"It's real. We're not invincible."
Posted at 7:45 PM, May 14, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-14 19:45:28-04

WEST SENECA, N.Y. (WKBW) — "It's real. We're not invincible. I wasn't and neither are any of you. It takes two seconds to put on your seat belt," West Seneca Town Justice Shannon Filbert said, hoping those words sink in with students at West Seneca East.

When Filbert was 16, she got into a car crash heading to the high school. That crash left her a quadriplegic...she wasn't wearing her seat belt.

"I'm not saying that I wasn't resilient and I didn't fight, but for something so simple I have to live every day thinking what if. If I would've just clicked up. Two seconds," Filbert said.

You could hear a pin drop as Filbert shared her message at her alma mater with the memory of Sunday's crash that killed on teen and injured five others from West Seneca, still all too raw. Police say at least three of the passengers were not wearing their seat belts.

"These are difficult moments, but West Seneca East your tough. Stick together, stay together. You're going to be okay," Mark Schroeder, Acting GTSC Chair and Acting DMV Commissioner, said.

The kick off for the "Buckle Up New York, Click it or Ticket" enforcement campaign was planned weeks ago, scaled back today following the recent tragedy. But the focus still clear: wear your seat belt.

The campaign runs from May 20-June 2.