New “Coast to Coast” Seat Belt Enforcement Effort Aims to Increase Click It or Ticket Participation, Save Lives

Staff Reports

Eastvale – From May 23 to June 5, local law enforcement personnel participated in the national Click It or Ticket campaign in an effort to save lives through increased seat belt use. This education enforcement period comes ahead of the Memorial Day holiday, one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.

According to research conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, while 88.5 percent of passenger vehicle occupants buckled up in 2015, almost 50 percent of occupants of fatal crashes nationwide are not restrained. In some states, the rate is as high as 70 percent unrestrained in fatal crashes.  In California, more than a half million people travel our roadways at grave risk without proper restraints. These facts gravely highlight the need for increased education, awareness and enforcement and awareness of seat belt use.

In 2014, nearly half of the 21,022 passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes nationally were unrestrained, according to NHTSA. During the nighttime hours of 6 p.m. to 5:59 a.m., that number increased to 57 percent of those killed. Law enforcement agencies wrote citations day and night as part of the Click It Or Ticket Campaign, with a zero-tolerance approach.

On June 4, 2016, officers with the Eastvale Traffic Division conducted a night time click it or ticket operation with the following results:

• 5 citations issued for drivers not wearing seatbelts
• 1 citation for child not properly restrained
• 8 citations for miscellaneous traffic violations

For more information on the Click It or Ticket campaign, please visit www.nhtsa.gov/ciot .
The checkpoint was funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, reminding everyone to ‘Report Drunk Driver – Call 9-1-1’.