Eighty-seven municipal police departments across southeast Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania State Police will conduct seat belt enforcement activities as part of a statewide Click It Or Ticket mobilization which runs from May 16 through June 5, and will include the Memorial holiday weekend.
Municipal police departments from Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties will focus on roadways with high unbelted crashes, injuries and deaths by initiating a combination of enforcement and public awareness activities.
The enforcement, coupled with educational outreach efforts, aims to increase seat-belt use and raise awareness of the state’s primary law stating all vehicle occupants under 18 years old must wear a seat belt. Drivers and front-seat passengers over 18 years old who are cited for another traffic violation will receive a second ticket if they’re unbuckled.
The enforcement is coordinated through PennDOT’s Buckle Up PA program and involves conducting seat-belt enforcement every month on roadways which data shows have low seat-belt use and high unbelted-crash rates. The effort supplements major enforcement mobilizations in May and June, as well as the Thanksgiving holiday during which PennDOT distributes $1.1 million statewide in federal enforcement funding from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Pennsylvania recorded another decrease in seat belt use in 2015 with an observed rate of 83.6%. This is the lowest rate since 2005. The proper use of a seat belt can increase your chances of surviving a crash by up to 60 percent.
According to PennDOT data there were 3,440 crashes in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties in 2015 in which people were not wearing seat belts, with 64 people dying in those crashes.
For more information on PennDOT’s seat belt efforts visit JustDrivePA.com.
Motorists can check conditions on more than 40,000 roadway miles by visiting www.511PA.com. 511PA, which is free and available 24 hours a day, provides traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information and access to more than 770 traffic cameras.
511PA is also available through a smartphone application for iPhone and Android devices, by calling 5-1-1, or by following regional twitter alerts accessible on the 511PA website.
