‘Click
It or Ticket’ Checkpoint in
Gloucester City Marks the Beginning
of Statewide Seat Belt Crackdown
Gloucester
City - Commuters in Gloucester City
were greeted by a police checkpoint
on Route 130 and Market Street this
morning, as local officers pulled
over motorists who failed to wear
their seat belts. Summonses were issued
to violators on the first day of the
statewide ‘Click
It or Ticket’ mobilization.
The high visibility seat belt checkpoint
demonstrated law enforcement’s
zero tolerance approach to those who
don’t buckle up.
“Eighty-six
percent of motorists in Garden State
use their seat belts and comply with
the law,” said Roberto Rodriguez,
director of the Division of Highway
Traffic Safety. “We are targeting
the 14 percent who refuse to wear
their seatbelts, which is a primary
law in New Jersey. Police would rather
write a thousand tickets than have
to knock on one family’s door
with news that a loved one didn’t
survive a crash because they weren’t
wearing a seat belt.”
The National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA)
says seat belt use reduces fatalities
by 45 percent and reduces the risk
of moderate to critical injury by
50 percent. New Jersey has one of
the highest seat belt usage rates
in the nation, and is poised to increase
that number to a new record level
in 2006. The number of motorists buckling
up in New Jersey has steadily risen
for nine consecutive years to the
current compliance rate of 86 percent.
Police agencies all over New Jersey
are conducting patrols and checkpoints
to snare seat belt violators. The
Division issued $4,000
grants to 156 departments to cover
overtime costs for the initiative.
Many other departments are participating
without grant funding in the effort
to enforce the seat belt law.
The ‘Click It or Ticket’
mobilization runs from May 22nd to
June 4th.
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