JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Roanoke County police Sgt. R.M. Poindexter checks a driver's license at a checkpoint Monday on Hollins Road.

JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Roanoke County Officer C.A. Beheler checks licenses Monday at a checkpoint on Hollins Road to kick off the Click It or Ticket crackdown.

The Buick LeSabre crept to a stop well short of the traffic checkpoint. Roanoke County police officers stood about 50 yards away, watching the driver and passenger swap places inside the car.

When the dirty white car started toward the checkpoint again, a police officer waved the driver into a parking lot. He ordered the occupants out and ticketed both front seat occupants -- a young man and young woman -- for driving on suspended licenses.

Monday's checkpoint on Hollins Road came on the first day of a two-week Click It or Ticket blitz in which more than 10,000 police agencies in the United States are cracking down on seat belt violators. The campaign aims to improve highway safety for the Memorial Day weekend, one of the deadliest Virginia highway holidays and the beginning of the summer travel season.

"It's just trying to get the message out before people hit the roadways," said Steve Goodwin, manager of the Roanoke office of the Virginia Highway Safety Office.

Police officers at the Hollins Road checkpoint ticketed seven people for not wearing seat belts and caught 11 driving with either a suspended license or no license, said Sgt. Tim Wyatt.

Nearby, officers on Old Mountain Road manned another checkpoint with similar results. One motorist there was arrested for possessing marijuana.

Virginia seat belt usage still lags the nation. Last year, 82 percent of Virginia motorists used seat belts, compared with the U.S. average of 84 percent, according to the state Department of Transportation.

Virginia logged 756 traffic fatalities in 2009, the lowest since traffic death counts began in 1966, according to VDOT.

Wyatt said he can't say for sure whether checkpoints influence people to buckle up in Roanoke County, but he said they're more effective than roving patrols.

Passing drivers usually have no idea why a lone car is stopped on the side of the road with a single patrol officer, he said.

Checkpoints are different.

"People know why this is here, and it has a psychological effect," Wyatt said. "People argue it, and I don't care, because I know it is effective."

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found motorists are more likely to buckle in the 26 states, plus Washington, D.C., with strong seat belt laws.

In Virginia and 23 other states, seat belt violations are a secondary offense, meaning scofflaws can't be ticketed unless police stop them for another offense.

Wyatt and five other Roanoke County officers worked Hollins Road checkpoint, near the entrance of Hollins Park. Officers in bright neon vests stood in the road motioning for drivers from both directions to stop.

"How are you ma'am? I need to see your driver's licence," Sgt. R.M. Poindexter said to a woman in a green SUV.

"That, I can do," the woman replied, rifling through her wallet.

Poindexter glanced at the license, handed it back, and sent the woman on her way.

A Chevrolet Monte Carlo stopped next. After inspecting the driver's license, Poindexter thanked the man.

"I appreciate you wearing your seat belt," he said. "Have a nice day."

Other drivers weren't so lucky. Some spotted the checkpoint and tried to turn around, only to be pulled over on suspicion.

Those stopped at the checkpoint who didn't have a license, or had expired tags, were asked to pull into a parking lot, where officers busily wrote tickets.

Friday night, police from eight jurisdictions will set up checkpoints along U.S. 460.

Police hope the checkpoints will remind people to drive safely over the holiday weekend. Seven people in Virginia died in crashes last Memorial Day weekend. Eighteen people died that holiday weekend in 2008.

"I'm tired of going to a house at 2 o'clock in the morning to tell them they just lost a loved one in a crash," Wyatt said.

"This is our little contribution to traffic safety."