Burrillville Police Border 2 Border for CIOT
2017 Click It or Ticket
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 25, 2017
CONTACT: Sgt. William Lacey, Burrillville Police Department
Click It or Ticket Campaign Starts May 22rd
Tri State Partnership to Conduct High visibility, Zero Tolerance For Lack of Seat Belt Use Campaign
“Border to Border”
Burrillville/ Glocester, Rhode Island – Once again, the Burrillville Police Department is reminding motorists to Click It or Ticket.
The Burrillville Police Department, along with the Rhode Island State Police, The Massachusetts State Police, the Connecticut State Police, Glocester, Douglas MA, Putnam CT and numerous other agencies will kick off their “Border to Border” campaign at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, May 22rd at the intersection of Buck Hill Road and Wallum Lake Road. This location is symbolic of where our three Great States are within reach of each other making a tremendous difference in Seat Belt awareness.
As part of the national seat belt enforcement campaign, law enforcement agencies around the State will be stepping up enforcement May 22 to June 5, just ahead of one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.
“Wearing a seatbelt is your best defense against drunk, drugged, distracted drivers and your own mistakes. What’s alarming is nationwide 48% of passenger vehicle occupants killed in 2015 were unrestrained. In the state of Rhode Island, you can be pulled over at any time for not wearing your seatbelt, Rhode Island and NHTSA are reminding you to Click it or Ticket.” - Art Kinsman National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Region 1 Administrator
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration the nation lost 35,092 people in traffic crashes in 2015, ending a 5-decade trend of declining fatalities with a 7.2% increase in deaths from 2014. A statistical projection of traffic fatalities for the first half of 2016 shows that an estimated 17,775 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes. This represents an increase of about 10.4 percent as compared to the 16,100 fatalities that were reported to have occurred in the first half of 2015. In 2015, the use of seat belts in passenger vehicles saved an estimated 13,941 lives of occupants 5 and older. An additional 2,804 lives would have been saved in 2015 if all unrestrained passenger vehicle occupants 5 and older involved in fatal crashes had worn their seat belts.
That’s why one focus of the Click It or Ticket campaign is nighttime enforcement. Participating law enforcement agencies will be taking a no-excuses approach to seat belt law enforcement, writing citations day and night.
In Rhode Island, the penalty for a seat belt violation is $45 for persons age eight and older. Child restraint violations for persons under age eight are $85.
Statewide, 10 unbelted vehicle occupants died in 2016. Nationally, almost twice as many males were killed in crashes as compared to females, with lower belt use rates, too. Across the United States, of the males killed in crashes in 2016, more than half were unrestrained. For females killed in crashes just under half were not buckled up.
According to the Rhode Island Department of Transportation’s Chief of State Highway Safety Programs, Gabrielle Abbate, seat belt use in Rhode Island stands at 87.5 percent for drivers and front seat occupants.
For more information on the Click It or Ticket mobilization, please visit www.nhtsa.gov/ciot.