Willow Glen Resident
News
Seat belt violators will face tickets during 'click it' campaign by police
By Eli Segall
Buckle up, San Jose residents; police are planning to beef up seat belt inspections.
The state's Office of Traffic Safety has granted San Jose $89,711to conduct a seat belt enforcement campaign May 14 to June 3. The grant will reimburse the San Jose Police Department for overtime pay for patrolling officers who carry out the three-week operation.
To catch seat belt infractions--which carry a $20 to $50 fine--officers will monitor intersections with high traffic volumes and patrol streets with a strict focus on unbuckled drivers, said officer Lawrence Birch of the city's traffic enforcement unit. Police will mobilize weekdays from 7 to10 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m., and on weekends between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., Birch said. Roughly six officers at a time will work these shifts, he added.
The grant is part of the state's Click It or Ticket seat belt enforcement program, which started in 2005 to heavily enforce seatbelt violations, said office of traffic safety spokesman Chris Cochran. The program has borne fruit, he added: since its inception, the state's seat belt user rate has risen from 89 percent to 93.4 percent. More than 270 law enforcement agencies statewide will receive program grants this year, Cochran said.
Police reported 3,700 seat belt violators during last year's three-week operation in San Jose, according to state figures. Police logged 1,350 overtime hours over the course of the program.
"Click It or Ticket was started under the banner of showing people that there are legal consequences, not just safety and social ones, that come with not wearing a seat belt," Cochran said.
The chances of being killed or suffering serious injury skyrocket by 300 percent if a person is not buckled in, Cochran said. Even people not buckled in properly--putting the shoulder strip behind while maintaining the lap belt--can cause serious internal injuries, and is itself an infraction, Birch said.
"It just makes sense to wear seat belts," Birch said. "In my line of work, I've seen the results of not wearing it."
