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Posted on Mon, May 14, 2012 : 5:47 p.m.

Police announce 'Click It or Ticket' seat belt enforcement campaign

By Cindy Heflin

Michigan is bringing back its Click It or Ticket campaign first launched in 2005.

The campaign informing drivers of stepped-up seatbelt enforcement began Monday with ads on television, radio, the Internet and billboards and in movie theaters. Starting next Monday and over the following two weeks, officers from the Michigan State Police and eight other agencies will use enforcement zones to ticket motorists and passengers who don’t buckle up.

Michigan law requires all motorists and front seat passengers to wear seat belts. Children 8 to 15 years old must buckle up no matter where they are sitting. Those younger than 8 must ride in a car seat or booster seat until they are at least 4 feet 9 inches tall.

michigan-state-police-traffic-stop.jpg

Photo courtesy of the Michigan State Police

Failure to follow the law can result in a $25 fine and another $40 in associated costs.

During the stepped-up enforcement, spotters will look for motorists and passengers not using seatbelts. The information will then be radioed to officers in enforcement zones who can issue tickets.

Washtenaw County agencies participating in the stepped-up enforcement campaign include state police as well as officers from Ann Arbor, Chelsea, Milan, Northfield Township, Pittsfield Township, Saline, the University of Michigan and the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office. Enforcement zones will be announced later, said Anne Readett, a spokeswoman for the Office of Highway Safety Planning, a division of the state police.

Federal traffic safety funds are paying for the effort.

Michigan has one of the highest seat belt use rates in the nation, with 94.5 percent of drivers and front seat passengers buckling up in 2011, the Office of Highway Safety Planning said in a news release. This is down from the record-high use rate of 97.9 percent in 2009.

While Michigan seat belt use is high overall, it drops to 87 percent for teens and young adults. Seat belt use falls to nearly 85 percent for male teens and young adults in pickups.

The classic Click it or Ticket television ad, the same one that aired in 2005, emphasizes the cost of getting a ticket. Research has shown that young men are more likely to heed such messages than those emphasizing the safety benefits of buckling up.

You can watch the ad below.

Comments

clownfish

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 2:33 p.m.

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among people age 44 and younger and the number one cause of head and spinal cord injury. Approximately 35,000 people die in motor vehicle crashes each year. About 50 percent (17,000) of these people could be saved if they wore their safety belts. For every one percent increase in safety belt use, 172 lives and close to $100 million in annual injury and death costs could be saved. http://www.jmu.edu/safetyplan/vehicle/generaldriver/safetybelt.shtml

Jeffersonian Liberal

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 2:19 p.m.

Commissar, why did you pull me over? Why are you looking in my glove box and trunk? Don't you need a warrant for that? Ask a former resident of the USSR what it was like.

UncleMao

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 1:15 p.m.

I'm too fat to wear a seatbelt.

Ricebrnr

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 1:06 p.m.

Don't blame the police for doing their jobs. Don't like the law? WORK to get the laws changed. Like the motorcyclists did. Like gun owners are doing. Shooting the messengers is just ignorant.

5c0++ H4d13y

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 1:43 p.m.

If they were enforcing all the law uniformly you might have a point.

ruminator

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 11:52 a.m.

Not wearing a seat belt = revenue. Not wearing a helmet. Priceless.

clownfish

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 2:47 p.m.

In 1991, prior to enacting its helmet law, California?s state medical insurance program paid $40 million for the treatment of motorcycle-related head injuries. That figure dropped to $24 million after enactment of a universal helmet law. The average charge for inpatient care for motorcyclists who sustain a brain injury is more than twice the charge for motorcyclists receiving inpatient care for other injuries. 32 The average savings for prevented brain injuries in Hawaii, Maine, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Wisconsin was $15,000 in inpatient costs for each incident in the first year. 33 The average hospitalization costs for unhelmeted riders were one-third greater than those of helmeted riders ($7,208 to $5,852) in a study of Illinois-injured motorcyclists. A privately conducted California study put the average cost of hospital admissions for a non-helmeted rider at $17,704. Of this initial amount, 72 percent of the costs for hospitalization were paid by the State of California, with another 10 percent being paid by other tax-based sources.35 Another study found that 57 percent of the patients listed a government program as the principal payer of in-patient hospital costs resulting from motorcycle crashes.36 NHTSA.GOV

Ignatz

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 11:49 a.m.

I agree with whose who think this is a revenue scam. If our "protectors" were serious about getting people to be safer by using seatbelts, there are far better ways to do it. For instance, legislating insurance companies the ability to reduce benefits if anyone is involved in an accident while not buckled up. Me? I've worn them since riding in my Dad's '62 Buick.

5c0++ H4d13y

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 11:42 a.m.

Most trafic laws are just part of the tax code. It's a revenue source. If they really cared about making the roads they'd find a way to enforce the texting law.

Brad

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 11:15 a.m.

We don't have enough police on the street here and AA and they're going to take time out for this? Click it or ticket - I say stick it!

C. S. Gass

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 9:36 a.m.

"Federal traffic safety funds are paying for the effort." -- Yeah, for a bunch of banners, fliers, and TV spots. The rest comes right out of departments operating budgets. This is a garbage law used to make money off an already cowed populace, basically it's "revenue enhancement" for the state which is legal jargon for legitimized highway robbery. The State lied to everyone when they invented this law saying that it would never be made primary enforcement. Then the Federal government dangled the cash carrot in front of the State with road funding subsidies, and now we're here. More government intrusion into our lives 'for safety's sake'. Fascism, plain and simple. Micro-managing of everyone's lives. And the State Police would be better occupied doing what they're doing so successfully in the City of Flint. Using these highly trained people as glorified traffic cops is a misuse of public funds that ought to be prosecuted as a crime.

Ivor Ivorsen

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 11:12 a.m.

C.S. Gass: I really think you need to look up the definition of "fascism." To save you time, I've linked to a pretty good definition below (Oxford). http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/fascism

Monica R-W

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 6:32 a.m.

Clicking it. Don't desire a ticket here! Thanks for the information....

Tex Treeder

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 11:22 a.m.

Sheeple.

u812

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 10:41 a.m.

what happened to America!

TommyJ

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 2:27 a.m.

The police could care less if you're wearing your seat belt. It's all a revenue stream for the cops and a total rip off for motorists. Just goes to show, cops don't care about 'Protecting and Serving' they're just out to write tickets and make $$ for the state.

C. S. Gass

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 9:42 a.m.

Many don't, you're right. I on the other hand never write these kinds of tickets because I don't really care about this law, I know it for what it is, a lie and a way to steal money. Many officers are 'waking up' and realizing that it is their freedoms too that are curtailed by laws like this. I've got far more important things to do today that this. You won't find me out there with this lunacy playing in traffic.

Tex Treeder

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 2:01 a.m.

Who remembers when this law was first introduced, our legislators promised that it would never be an offense that would allow police to pull a car over. A couple of legislative sessions later and that promise was easily broken. "It's for your own good." "It's better for everyone." "It saves money." All of those might be true, but also true is that the legislators lied. I oppose seat belt laws. I think you're foolish if you don't wear seat belts, but I value individual responsibility.

johnnya2

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 1:04 p.m.

YOUR freedom ends when you decide to drive on PUBLIC roads. You can drive without a seatbelt on PRIVATE property As long as the roads are public, any accidents that happen, cause TAXPAYERS to fund any ambulance, police or fire crews. By the way, if you do not wear yoru seat belt and your insurance company asks you on the insurance whether you wear one and you are not, you have committed fraud and would no longer be insured. If I were an insurance company I would do the same for motorcyclists. If you drive without a helmet, we will not insure you.

Tex Treeder

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 11:21 a.m.

So what's your point?

a2cents

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 10:37 a.m.

... and helmets... and childseats... and turnsignals... and brakelights... and insurance... and licenses... and adnauseum

Ron Granger

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 1:49 a.m.

And every time they say they need to cut the State Police, they somehow manage to find taxpayer millions to prevent cuts. It's like "No police left behind". And then we see these programs and it just tells you how skewed their priorities are.

Bill

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 1:27 a.m.

The point is like most laws this is to make the city coffers money on the backs of those who pay their salaries! Motorcycles need no helmets because they beat them at their own game , forced the law! Now I agree it is a good idea to wear seat belts but if I choose not to who can legislate me to do right? We cant legislate people not to jump from their roofs or not to drive into a wall at 70 who gives them the right to fine us for no seat belts? We DO!

hail2thevict0r

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 12:17 a.m.

All the while people are getting murdered on buses in Detroit.....

YpsiVeteran

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 2:25 p.m.

No...Pontiac. They got killed on the party bus in Pontiac.

lt1234

Mon, May 14, 2012 : 11:20 p.m.

Must for auto seat belt and no for motorcycle helmet. I have to assume riding a motorcycle is safer than driving a vehicle.

Monica R-W

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 6:34 a.m.

You got a point here!

u812

Tue, May 15, 2012 : 12:20 a.m.

how can a cop give someone a seat belt ticket with a 2 or 3 ton vehicle and keep a straight face.

Skyjockey43

Mon, May 14, 2012 : 10:58 p.m.

Of course there's absolutely no crime to speak of in our city currently, so go ahead and divert our skeleton crew of a police department to nanny duty. Look, I understand that not wearing a seatbelt is a ridiculously stupid idea. But if we continue with this trend of criminalizing stupid, city council meetings are gonna get really lonely.

Subroutine

Mon, May 14, 2012 : 10:04 p.m.

While I don't think it should be a law to wear your seat belt, why would you not? It's there, It takes a second or two to put it on, and will save your life in many crash scenarios. Whatever you or I think about the law is irrelevant though. Everyone driving here knows its the law to fasten your seat belt. Every car made in at least the last 35 years has seat belts. If you get a ticket for not wearing a seat belt you deserve it.