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Click or Ticket campaign begins this weekend in Kentucky

May 25, 2012

Drivers might want to think twice before hitting the road without wearing their seatbelts the next couple of weeks.

The Winchester Police Department is joining Kentucky State Police and law enforcement agencies across Kentucky for the Click it or Ticket seat belt enforcement campaign that began May 21 and runs through June 5.

The yearly initiative is geared at saving lives by cracking down on those who don’t buckle up —both day and night. It is held each year before the Memorial Day holiday weekend when, traditionally, millions of Americans take to the road.

Sgt. Howard Fricke said Winchester Police will be stationed around the city watching for seatbelt usage.

“We’ll have officers at different intersections around town watching to see if motorists are wearing their seatbelts. There will be patrol units available nearby that will pull the vehicle over,” Fricke said. “If they are spotted without their seatbelts on, even if they put them on when they are pulled over, they will still be ticketed because we have already seen them.”

According to KSP statistics, there were 721 highway fatalities in Kentucky in 2011. Of those fatalities, 576 individuals were occupants of motor vehicles, and 338 — almost 59 percent — were not wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash.

U.S. Department of TransportationNational Highway Traffic Safety Administration research shows that there is a greater risk of being involved in a fatal crash at night compared to the daytime. It also shows that fewer people wear their seatbelts at night than during the day.

According to KSP statistics, 215 motor vehicle passengers died in accidents during nighttime hours in Kentucky in 2011, and of those 144 — 67 percent — were not wearing seat belts.
Statewide, statistics show that men are less likely than women to buckle up, with young males making up the majority of those.

Because of those statistics, Fricke said Winchester Police would be manning the checkpoints both day and night.

Kentucky’s seat belt law went into effect July 2006 as a primary law, meaning that police can pull a vehicle over for a seat belt violation even if no other violation has occurred.

Under the law, the driver and all passengers in a vehicle must wear a seat belt. The driver of the vehicle is responsible for making sure everyone in the vehicle is wearing a seat belt. Failure to do so results in a $25 fine for the driver, even if it is one of the passengers who is not buckled up.

Contact Bob Flynn at bflynn@winchestersun.com.

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