NJ, NY & CT Roll Out Click It or Ticket Seat Belt and Car Seat Safety Blitz

NJ, NY & CT Roll Out Click It or Ticket Seat Belt and Car Seat Safety Blitz

Local and state law enforcement agencies in New Jersey will today join peers in 10 other states in a coordinated border-to-border seat belt enforcement effort that will kickoff the annual Click It or Ticket campaign nationwide.

On May 19th, law enforcement officers from New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia set up checkpoints and roving patrols near border crossings to enforce seat belt usage. This targeted operation signals the beginning of the Click It or Ticket campaign, which runs in New Jersey through June 1.

One hundred and twenty five agencies throughout the 11 states are expected to participate, including 21 in New Jersey: Montvale, Northvale, River Vale, Franklin Lakes, Pennsauken, Haddon Twp., Palmyra, Ewing Twp., Burlington City, Pohatcong, Phillipsburg, Essex County Sheriff, Passaic County Sheriff, Jersey City, North Bergen, Guttenberg, West New York, Union City, Fort Lee, Bergen County Police and New Jersey State Police.

Not wearing a seat belt is a leading cause of preventible death in the US. Death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

About 40 percent of the deaths from the five deadliest diseases occurring each year in the U.S. could be prevented, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Among these are injuries from vehicle crashes, which despite all the recent technology in cars are best prevented by simple solution of wearing a seat belt.

“Despite major advancements in vehicle manufacturing and technology, seat belts remain the most effective safety feature available in cars today,” says Gary Poedubicky, Acting Director of the NJ Division of Highway Traffic Safety. “

Every year 900,000 people die prematurely in the United States because of the five major diseases, but between 20 to 40 percent of these could be prevented if risk factors were controlled, research clarifies.

“Because we border three other states, New Jersey is a vital cog in this enforcement effort,” said Division of Highway Traffic Safety Acting Director Gary Poedubicky. “The border crossing to our north, west and south are heavily trafficked areas important locations to deploy law enforcement to ensure that seat belt laws are being obeyed.”

Legislation passed in 2010 made it a secondary offense for adults over the age of 18 to ride unbuckled in the back seat of a motor vehicle. The law allows police to issue a summons and fine of $46 to unrestrained adults in the back seat when the car they are riding in is pulled over for another violation. The state’s primary seat belt law requires all motorists and passengers in the front seat, including passengers under the age of 18, to wear a seat belt or be securely buckled in a car seat, or face a $46 fine. This ticket is issued to the driver.

Drivers are More likely to be pulled over and fined in the next two weeks if not wearing seat belt or if children in their vehicles are not properly restrained by a car seat, says the Division of Highway Traffic Safety.

Hispanics are more likely to not have their children properly seated in a car seat than white-non Hispanics, according to NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)

Last year the mobilization, which ran from May 20 to June 2, resulted in 26,049 seat belt citations. Police officers also wrote 612 child restraint and 4,895 speeding citations, and made 860 DWI arrests. The crackdown is credited by government officials with keeping the Seat Belt usage rate high, and preventing deaths and injury from motor vehicle crashes.