The California Highway Patrol is warning local motorists to
buckle up over the Memorial Day weekend as extra officers will
patrol the highways in a crackdown on seat belt violations.
The California Highway Patrol is warning local motorists to buckle up over the Memorial Day weekend as extra officers will patrol the highways in a crackdown on seat belt violations.
The special enforcement targeting motorists and passengers who aren’t wearing seat belts is expected to save lives over the holiday weekend, CHP officials said.
All available officers will be on the roads during the holiday’s maximum enforcement period, which starts at 6 p.m. today and extends through midnight Monday, CHP Capt. Bob Davies said.
“Our top priority over the long weekend will be safety belt enforcement,” said Davies, commander of the Hollister-Gilroy office “We’re telling people, ‘Remember – or be remembered.’ The more motorists we can convince to buckle up, the more lives will be saved.”
Of the 2,764 passengers and drivers killed in accidents across the state during 2001 – the most recent year for which such statistics are available – 1,268 were not wearing a seat belt, Davies said. Statewide, 40 people died in vehicle accidents on Memorial Day weekend last year, according to CHP statistics.
Davies is urging motorists to buckle up even if they’re taking a short trip or if the belt feels confining.
“Most safety-belt violators are not scofflaws. They’re dads making a last-minute grocery run or churchgoers that do not want to rumple their Sunday clothes,” Davies said.
Fines for not wearing a seat belt range from $100 to as much as $500 for repeat violators.
The CHP’s $1.5 million safety belt campaign, which will be featured during May and June on billboards, radio and television, targets this segment of the public. The messages include, “Wearing a windshield. Now, that’s uncomfortable” and “The store is just down the street. So is the jerk running the red light.”
California’s safety-belt compliance rate is slightly more than 91 percent, which is among the highest in the nation.
“Even at this high compliance rate, hundreds of deaths could be prevented if motorists used their safety belts,” Davies said.
Memorial Day is also a holiday during which Operation CARE – Combined Accident Reduction Effort – is carried out. A joint program of the nation’s highway patrols, CARE places special emphasis on safety along interstate highways during holidays.
California highways where CARE is conducted include interstates 80, 40, 15 (from San Bernardino to the Nevada border) and 5 (from Bakersfield to the Oregon border).
