Law enforcement officers from the Woodbridge, Metuchen and Edison police departments will join police from around the country in cracking down on unbuckled motorists and passengers as part of the national Click it or Ticket campaign.
Through June 3, there will be high visibility seat belt checkpoints and saturation patrols, in combination with local and national publicity efforts, to reiterate the life-saving value of seat belts.
“Using a seat belt is the simplest way for a driver and his or her passengers to protect themselves when traveling,” said Gary Poedubicky, acting director of the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety, in a prepared statement. “In 2016, it is estimated that more than 14,500 lives were saved nationally by the proper use of seat belts.”
Poedubicky added a key focus of this year’s campaign is to promote seat belt usage by adults in all seating positions in the vehicle, both front and rear. The front seat belt usage rate in New Jersey currently stands at 94.07 percent; however, adults riding in rear seats are buckling up only 48 percent of the time, according to the most recent survey, he said.
“For whatever reason, there seems to be a disconnect with people feeling they don’t need to buckle up when riding as a passenger in rear seats, and this is a concern,” he said.
During the 2017 Click it or Ticket campaign, 350 New Jersey police agencies participated in the two-week initiative. As a result of the effort, law enforcement officers issued 17,792 seat belt citations, 6,363 speeding summonses and made 976 impaired driving arrests, according to the statement.