May 15th, 2017 by WCBC Radio
As summer kicks off and families hit the road for vacations, The Allegany County Sheriff’s Office is reminding motorists to buckle up. Aimed at enforcing seat belt use to help keep you and your family safe, the national seat belt campaign will take place May 22 through June 4, concurrent with one of the busiest travel and holiday weekends of the year.
“Our law enforcement personnel see first hand the loss of life when people do not buckle up,” said Sergeant Israel Sibley. “It’s such a simple thing, and it should be an automatic next step after sitting down in a vehicle.” As the Memorial Day weekend approaches and the summer vacation season ramps up, “We want to keep our community members safe, and make sure people are doing the one thing that can save them in a crash: buckling up – in ALL seats. If the enforcement crackdown wakes people up to the dangers of unrestrained driving and gets them to buckle up, we’ll consider it a success. Our deputies are prepared to ticket anyone who is not wearing their seat belt, including drivers that have neglected to properly buckle their children. – Click It or Ticket”.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly half of the 22,441 passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2015 were unrestrained. Unbelted fatalities are more prevalent at night than during daytime hours: 51 percent of those killed in 2015 during the overnight hours of 6 p.m. to 5:59 a.m. were unbelted at the time of the crash. Tragically, these national statistics are mirrored locally. Participating law enforcement agencies will be taking a no-excuses approach to seat belt law enforcement, writing citations day and night. In Maryland, the maximum penalty for a seat belt violation is $83.00, including court costs.
At 4:00 p.m. on May 22, The Allegany County Sheriff’s Office will join law enforcement agencies across half the United States in mobilizing the Click It or Ticket “Border to Border” Operation. Law enforcement agencies will join forces to provide increased seat belt enforcement at state borders, sending a zero tolerance message to the public: Driving or riding unbuckled will result in a ticket, no matter what state. “Hundreds of thousands of citizens will be traveling this Memorial Day weekend, as well as throughout the summer vacation season. We want to make this the safest summer possible. Buckling up is not optional; it’s the difference between life and death in a crash. That’s why we’re out here enforcing the law. Click It or Ticket, every time, day or night” said Sergeant Israel Sibley.
For more information on the Occupant Protection, please visit www.towardzerodeathsmd.com .
