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San Ramon police are joining agencies across the nation in emphasizing seat belt enforcement the next two weeks during the annual “Click It or Ticket” campaign, a department spokesperson said Monday.
“Every day, unbuckled motorists are losing their lives in motor vehicle crashes,” San Ramon police Sgt. Pat Cerruti said in a statement. “As we approach Memorial Day weekend and the summer vacation season, we want to make sure people are doing the one best thing that can save them in a crash: buckling up.”
The “Click It or Ticket” effort began Monday and runs through the end of May, including the busy travel weekend around Memorial Day.
Wearing seat belts improves driver and passenger safety, especially when involved in crashes, according to Cerruti.
Nearly half of the 21,132 passenger-vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2013 were not wearing seat belts, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
The 2013 unrestrained death rate was highest at night, with 59% of people killed in crashes between 6 p.m. and 5:59 a.m. not wearing seat belts, according to the NHTSA.
“That’s why one focus of the ‘Click It or Ticket’ campaign is nighttime enforcement,” Cerruti noted.
Participating police agencies will employ a zero-tolerance approach to seat belt enforcement day and night during the next two weeks, the sergeant added. In California, the minimum penalty for a seat belt violation is $161.
“If you ask the family members of those unrestrained people who were killed in crashes, they’ll tell you — they wish their loved ones had buckled up,” Cerruti said. “The bottom line is that seat belts save lives. If these enforcement crackdowns get people’s attention and get them to buckle up, then we’ve done our job.”
In 2013, 500 unrestrained vehicle occupants died in crashes in California, the sergeant said.
Rates were highest among males, Cerruti added. Approximately 54% of males killed in crashes in 2013 were not wearing seat belts whereas about 41% of females killed in crashes that year were not buckled up.
For more information on “Click It or Ticket,” visit the NHTSA website.
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This is good….NOW, can somebody do something about the texters! They are the worst EVER!
I agree Debby.
A person who doesn’t where a seat belt only puts their own life in jeopardy. A person who texts or reads texts sent to them while driving (or eats a burrito or blow dries their hair or paints their nails or checks sports scores or works on their laptop etc etc etc) puts everyone around them in grave danger.
SRPD- get your priorities together and worry about what matters. It’s bad enough that in the Dublin we have one of the most useless Highway Patrol offices in the entire state. Let’s not extend that stupidity to local law enforcement.
Doh !
Back to grade school with Derek. Make that “wear” a seat belt-
Have you noticed that since the San Ramon Police Department has moved its offices that very seldom is there an officer just behind the building looking for speeders going to work along a a Camino Ramon. I’m not sure if the major traffic infractions have been eliminated or if it’s just not as easy to go hid behind the building trapping speeders while the officer Is merely feet from the office. Was this just a method of meeting quotas for tickets and revenue as well as being easy or was this stertch of street just a hot bed of violations. Now they turning attention to seat belts… isn’t this sort of Darwinian selection of the smartest ie those that wear seat belts? Where are we headed with the nanny-state? Maybe we should all wear helmets all the time to cut down on head injuries…. Just saying
So how much did that speeding ticket cost you Jerry?
Longtime Resident,
Haven’t had a ticket for any traffic infraction in the last ten years… tend to obey traffic laws… I question whether traffic enforcement is for community service or for city revenue… I would bet there are revenue numbers associated with traffic offense and that there is pressure put on each officer to meet his fair share ie quota. I hope to not aid in revenue generation.
Jerry,
Interesting thing about traffic fines, 90% goes to the state and county and only 10% goes to the city. If you get a $400 red light ticket, the city gets only about $40. The city can’t hire an officer give them a car or motorcycle and ticket book and make money. The cost of the officer exceeds what they can earn writing tickets.
Sam, I was just about to say the same thing – the last average I saw was 17% of the fine goes to the municipality.
My problem lately is the red light runners. Big SUV passed me on Crow Canyon last week fully accelerating even though the light ahead was already yellow. He had no intention of stopping, and he didn’t…flew right through the red light. Make the fines $1,000 and San Ramon would get maybe 100. Teach a few people the cost of red light running. I’m seeing it ALL the time.