Law enforcement and traffic safety officials are planning a two-week "Buckle Up Kentucky" enforcement wave across the state.

Beginning Nov. 17 and running through Thanksgiving, the campaign will emphasize "high visibility enforcement of the state's safety belt and child restraint law."

The Kentucky State Police say the wave is designed to "reach those least likely to buckle up and most at risk to die."

That group includes teens and young adults, a group the KSP says are killed at far higher rates "because they are caught in a lethal intersection of inexperience, risk taking and low safety belt use."

For many non-safety belt users, and especially young people, the threat of a citation has proven to be a greater incentive to buckle up than the threat of injury or death," the KSP said.

Chuck Hurley, executive director of the safety campaign, said traffic crashes caused more than 900 deaths and 51,000 injuries in Kentucky during 2002.

"More than half of those killed were not properly restrained," he said.

Fatality rates for teens are twice that of older drivers, he continued, and the risk of crashes for teens is four times that of older drivers.

"Two out of five deaths among teens are the result of a traffic crash," he said.

While national safety belt use stands at 79 percent, Kentucky's rate is only 65.5 percent.

"Generally, those who don't wear their safety belts are teens and young men ages 18-34," Hurley said.

During the campaign, KSP and cooperating local law enforcement agencies will be stepping up their patrol activities and holding traffic safety checkpoints at high crash locations, the KSP said.

There will also be safety belt-child passenger seat checkpoints at various Dairy Queen locations "to insure that families are safe to travel for the holidays, KSP reported.