The Santa Monica Police Department is reminding motorists to Click It or Ticket. As part of the national seat belt enforcement campaign, law enforcement agencies around the country will be stepping up enforcement May 18-31, to help save lives by cracking down on those who don’t buckle up.
“Every day, drivers and their passengers who do not wear their seat belts lose their lives in motor vehicle collisions,” said SMPD Captain Ken Semko. “As we approach Memorial Day weekend and the summer vacation season, we want to make sure people are doing the one best thing that can save them in a crash, buckling up.”
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly half of the 21,132 passenger vehicle occupants killed in collisions in 2013 were unrestrained.
At night from 6 pm to 5:59 am, that number soared to 59 percent of those killed. That’s why one focus of the Click It or Ticket campaign is nighttime enforcement. Participating law enforcement agencies will be taking a zero tolerance approach to seat belt law enforcement, writing citations day and night. In California, the minimum penalty for a seat belt violation is $161.
California statistics reveal that 500 unrestrained vehicle occupants died in 2013. Almost twice as many males were killed in collisions as compared to females. Of the males killed in collisions in 2013, more than half (54%) were unrestrained. 41 percent of females killed were not buckled up.
“If you ask the family members of those unrestrained people who were killed in crashes, they’ll tell you—they wish their loved ones had buckled up,” added Captain Semko.
For more information on the Click It or Ticket mobilization, visit www.nhtsa.gov/ciot.
