In an effort to increase seatbelt useage and save lives, law enforcement agencies are in the midst of a statewide two-week enforcement zone pilot project, and results of a recent Clarkston Click it or Ticket operation were quite high.
During a four hour span, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., on Tuesday, May 20, at M-15 and I-75 in Independence Township, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department made 67 traffic stops and issued 61 tickets, Sgt. Joseph Lambourn of the Traffic Division said. (Results from a Click It or Ticket zone from 8 a.m. to noon at Dixie Highway and Maybee on Saturday, May 24 were not available before press time.)
This is after drivers are warned by a posted sign they are entering a Click it or Ticket zone. Lambourn explained an officer in a ‘spotter car,? an unmarked police vehicle, radios ahead to another officer, in a marked police vehicle 100 feet away, to pull over a targeted offender.
Michigan law requires a seatbelt for all front seat passengers and all passengers under age 16, and all children under age four must be in an approved child safety seat.
Similar enforcement zone programs have been run in the past to detect speeding motorists and construction zone violators.
If caught without a seatbelt, the fine will cost you $50.
‘We’re out there to save lives and reduce injuries,? Lambourn said. ‘If you’ve been to as many accidents as I’ve been to, you know seatbelts work. People think because we have airbags they’re safe. But without a seatbelt an airbag is not going to do much. With a seatbelt, the injuries won’t be as severe.?