Colorado State Patrol on Thursday rolled out a new multi-month seat belt awareness campaign aimed at the state's youngest drivers, citing a Colorado seat belt use rate of 90.7 percent — slightly below the 92 percent national rate.

The agency has flagged the gap before, reporting that Colorado seat belt use is below the national average.

Branded "The Sound that Saves," the campaign offers 10 reasons drivers should buckle up every trip and zeroes in on teens, who State Patrol officials say are still most likely to make excuses for skipping the safety device. Troopers investigated more than 27,340 crashes across Colorado last year.

The agency's list of reasons begins with the most direct: seat belts substantially reduce the chance of being seriously injured or killed in a crash. Beyond physical injury, troopers note that not wearing a belt can affect personal injury claims, with defense attorneys arguing that injuries would have been less severe had the driver been buckled.

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Unrestrained occupants can also injure other passengers by colliding with them inside the vehicle, and survivors of serious crashes can face significant mental health consequences, including anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Other consequences cited by the State Patrol include higher medical costs and longer hospital stays, the risk of long-term disabilities affecting quality of life and the ability to work, increased auto insurance rates after a citation or crash, and reduced effectiveness of vehicle airbags, which are designed to work together with a seat belt.

Troopers also point to the impact on family. A serious injury or death from an unrestrained crash leaves loved ones to cope with both the trauma and the financial fallout. Children who watch parents skip seat belts often pick up the same habit.

The 10th reason is the law itself. Under Colorado's secondary enforcement law for adults, drivers and front-seat passengers can be ticketed for not wearing a seat belt only if they are stopped for another traffic violation. The state's Graduated Drivers Licensing law treats teens differently — drivers under 18 and their passengers, regardless of age, must wear seat belts, and that is a primary offense, meaning a teen can be pulled over solely for not buckling up. Colorado's Child Passenger Safety law is also primary enforcement, allowing officers to stop a driver who has any unrestrained or improperly restrained child under 18 in the vehicle.

"The Colorado State Patrol is launching a multi-month 'The Sound that Saves' campaign to increase seat belt awareness and use across Colorado," the agency said in announcing the effort. "This campaign targets the youngest and newest drivers to close the gap between the 92% national seat belt use rate and Colorado's 90.7% seat belt use rate."

More information on seat belt safety is available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at nhtsa.gov.