The Ohio Department of Public Safety has increased its paid media advertisements 50 percent from two years ago to build year-round traffic safety awareness.

State officials spent $1.5 million in federal funds in fiscal year 2012 compared to less than $1 million in 2010. Big chunks of that total are for major public awareness campaigns like the current “Click It or Ticket” and the “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” initiatives before Labor Day and the December holidays.

“We think the more awareness that people know that law enforcement is looking for people not buckled up and the more people realize the importance of buckling up, that’s definitely one of the factors that tends to increase seat-belt usage,” said safety expert Felice Moretti.

Moretti is the program administrator for the traffic safety section of the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services.

“We increased our paid media fund,” he said. “Every state can purchase paid media with their federal funds. How much they spend is up to the state.”

Ohio receives about $16 million annually from the U.S. Department of Transportation for traffic safety awareness, education and enforcement. Of the $1.5 million which Ohio uses for advertising, the state is spending nearly $400,000 in television, radio, billboard and non-traditional media for the “Click It or Ticket” campaign which coincides with the national initiative. Other ad dollars are aimed at at-risk behaviors or audiences such as drunk driving, pickup truck drivers, young drivers, distracted driving and motorcycle riders.

In the past three fiscal years, the federal government has spent $27.25 million per year on three national ad campaigns — $8 million of which supports the current “Click It or Ticket” blitz through June 3. A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration spokesperson said the drunk-driving campaigns in August ($12 million) and December ($7.25 million) account for the rest.

Moretti said states have been able to use federal dollars for paid advertising only since 2000. Before that, he said, they depended on finding an audience for public service announcements. “I was there through the inception when you could only kind of beg and borrow that you could get a TV station to run your PSA and a lot of people thought that what you would see (with paid ads) is that stations still wouldn’t give you good matches or wouldn’t give you any free air space,” Moretti said. “That actually hasn’t been the case. We’re very fortunate. All of our partners over-deliver just because they know that our message isn’t selling a product, it’s just trying to save lives.”

To measure its efforts, the Ohio Department of Public Safety uses four yearly telephone studies of drivers’ behaviors and attitudes.

Miami University professor Dr. Robert Seufert of the Applied Research Center in Middletown directs the federally mandated surveys. Seufert said seat-belt use in Ohio has increased from 65 percent in 2000 to 84 percent in 2010 — just below the state’s target of 85 percent.

The 2011 study consistently showed more people recognize the anti-drunk-driving and pro-seat-belt ad slogans after the campaigns than before them. Respondents’ unprompted recall of “Click It or Ticket” increased from 65 percent to 81 percent after last year’s campaign.

“If you look at the trend of seat-belt use and what’s happened to highway fatalities and serious accidents, I think (advertising is) very beneficial,” Seufert said. “I think the campaigns over all have been very effective.”

Fatal traffic accidents in Ohio dropped from 1,417 in 2002 to a record low of 1,020 in 2011.

Ohio is a secondary enforcement state with regard to seat belts. That means police can’t pull drivers over unless they are committing another violation. Seufert includes recommendations in his yearly report and points out that seat-belt use in Ohio would be even higher if it was a primary enforcement state. Efforts to pass such legislation have been fruitless.

“We don’t have a primary (seat-belt) law,” Moretti said. “So all we have to depend on is educating the public on the importance of buckling up, and paid media is how we do that.”

The anti-texting bill on Gov. John Kasich’s desk also would make texting in a moving vehicle a secondary enforcement violation. Moretti said if that initiative becomes law, another ad campaign is likely to explain the risks of distracted driving.

Earlier this year, a national highway safety advocate criticized Ohio’s traffic safety enforcement. “Ohio is at the bottom of the barrel because they are lacking so many critical laws like primary enforcement of seat belt, all-rider motorcycle helmet laws, they don’t have major elements of an important teen driving law, they have weak drunk-driving laws,” said Jackie Gillan, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.

Of the $27.25 million spent yearly on federal traffic safety media campaigns, 57 percent goes to TV, 20 percent to digital, 13 percent to radio and 10 percent toward Hispanic community efforts.

“Research indicates that heightened awareness of messages about the importance of wearing belts combined with more visible enforcement efforts leads to higher belt use and impaired-driving fatalities decline,” said Jose Ucles of the Hispanic Public Affairs & Outreach section of the NHTSA.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-6951 or mgokavi@DaytonDaily News.com.