California law enforcement to motorists: ‘Click It or Ticket’
Beginning just in time to coincide with the first big summer holiday of 2012 California local law enforcement officers have teamed with the highway patrol to launch the “Click t or Ticket” campaign. The public safety information initiative is designed to encourage motorists and passengers to fasten their seat belts in an effort to avoid being cited by law enforcement officers for violating the state’s seatbelt regulations. According to a statement issued by a representative from the California Highway Patrol’s Indio area branch, officers in the Coachella Valley region will be on the lookout for motorists who aren’t buckled up or are buckled up incorrectly. More than half, or six out of 11, of the deadly traffic accidents that have occurred in the Coachella Valley region in 2012 involved drivers or passengers who were not wearing seatbelts, according to law enforcement accident reports. In 2009, the state of California had the third highest seatbelt rate in the United States, with an estimated 95.3 percent of drivers and pedestrians on state roadways buckled up properly in federal guideline compliant safety belts, according to statistics provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The California Highway Patrol will not be satisfied until the seatbelt usage rate is 100 percent, however, according to a statement issued by a Coachella Valley area California Highway Patrol representative. The crackdown on seatbelt laws begins Mermorial Day Weekend and will continue throughout the summer.
