DARLINGTON - The City of Darlington Police Department will increase its safety belt enforcement patrols during the annual "Click It or Ticket" mobilization from May 24 to June 6.
More than 300 law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin are expected to participate in this year's Click It or Ticket, which is the nation's largest safety belt enforcement and education campaign, according to Darlington Police Chief Jason King.
"All too often, our officers respond to crash scenes where people are needlessly killed or critically injured because they were not buckled up. That's why we are serious about safety belt enforcement," King said. "We are reminding motorists that a change in state law last year allows our officers to stop and ticket unbuckled drivers and passengers even if we did not observe another violation. We hope that our enforcement efforts during Click It or Ticket and throughout the year will motivate people to buckle up so that we can reduce the number of preventable traffic deaths to zero in Wisconsin. But if voluntary compliance fails and people continue to ignore the mandatory safety belt law as well as common sense, we will ticket them."
Last year, convictions for failure to fasten safety belts exceeded 100,000 for the first time in state history. Safety belt violations were approximately 12 percent of all traffic convictions in 2009.
More than 300 law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin are expected to participate in this year's Click It or Ticket, which is the nation's largest safety belt enforcement and education campaign, according to Darlington Police Chief Jason King.
"All too often, our officers respond to crash scenes where people are needlessly killed or critically injured because they were not buckled up. That's why we are serious about safety belt enforcement," King said. "We are reminding motorists that a change in state law last year allows our officers to stop and ticket unbuckled drivers and passengers even if we did not observe another violation. We hope that our enforcement efforts during Click It or Ticket and throughout the year will motivate people to buckle up so that we can reduce the number of preventable traffic deaths to zero in Wisconsin. But if voluntary compliance fails and people continue to ignore the mandatory safety belt law as well as common sense, we will ticket them."
Last year, convictions for failure to fasten safety belts exceeded 100,000 for the first time in state history. Safety belt violations were approximately 12 percent of all traffic convictions in 2009.