Police To Heighten Seatbelt Enforcement

By Andrew Gorosko

For the two-week period from May 21 through June 3, Newtown Police Department will conduct a high-visibility traffic safety enforcement campaign known as “Click-It or Ticket, Day & Night.”

The local project, which is part of a national enforcement campaign, is intended to ensure that motorists and their passengers, including children who are required to be positioned in child safety seats, are complying with the state laws on seatbelt and child safety seat usage.

Under the terms of applicable state law, failure to wear a seat belt by a person in the front seat of a vehicle carries a $92 fine.

The failure of a driver under 18 or their passengers to wear a safety belt carries at $120 fine.

Also, three other situations will result in a $92 fine for the first offense, a $190 fine for the second offense, and a Class A misdemeanor for the third offense.

Those situations are:

*Transportation of a child who is age 6 or younger, or who weighs less than 60 pounds, without the use of a child safety seat.

*Failure to have a child under 1 year old, or who weighs less than 20 pounds, to ride in a suitable rear-facing child safety seat.

*Securing a child in a booster seat without a seatbelt which includes a shoulder belt.

Too many drivers and passengers on the road at night are not wearing seatbelts and such a situation too often ends in tragedy, according to police.

Local police will be making a point of enforcing seatbelt laws around the clock.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the use of seatbelts saved an estimated 12,500 lives in auto accidents in the US in 2010.

Also, of the more than 22,000 people who died in passenger-vehicle accidents in the US in 2010, 51 percent of them were not wearing seatbelts at the time of the fatal accidents.

Younger motorists and men are particularly at risk of dying due to failure to wear seatbelts, according to police.

“Those who choose not to wear a seatbelt will feel the heat from our officers who will be out cracking down on Click-It or Ticket violators. Motorists should buckle up every time they go out, both day and night,” Police Chief Michael Kehoe said in a statement.

“Our officers are prepared to ticket anyone not buckled up,” he said.

 In a proclamation, First Selectman Pat Llodra urged all citizens to wear seatbelts while driving vehicles or riding as passengers.