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Sheriff's Office participating in 'Click It or Ticket' campaign this month

By Howard B. Owens

Not wearing a seat belt while in a moving vehicle is always perilous to your health, but for the remainder of the month it will represent a little extra danger to your pocketbook.

The Sheriff's Office is participating in a nationwide effort over the next couple of weeks to more diligently enforce seat belt and child restraint laws.

Deputies routinely enforce these laws, Chief Deputy Gordon Dibble noted in a press release, but during this mobilization, there will be extra patrols on the streets and roadways specifically looking for seat belt violators.

The national program is called "Click It or Ticket."

The extra patrols will continue until June 1.

According to stats included in the press release, among motorists who were involved in a crash, those who were unrestrained were almost eight times more likely to require hospitalization. Unrestrained motorists are five times more likely to suffer traumatic brain injury. 

In 2011, 47 motorists in Genesee County who did not wear a seat belt were treated at a hospital for injuries. Those treatments resulted in $309,000 in emergency room charges.

Doug Yeomans

It's a great idea to wear a seat belt and it's also a great idea to not smoke, but seat belts should be just as much of a choice as suicide by tobacco. The seat belt law is another excuse for the police to snoop.

I don't need a belt on a trike, a 4 wheeler, a bike, or a snowmobile. Seat belts in a vehicle should not be compulsory.

May 20, 2014, 8:54am Permalink
Scott Ogle

You make every good point, Doug. But I disagree. The demonstrable savings in lives (in the multiple thousands each year) makes me support the law and its enforcement.

May 20, 2014, 1:26pm Permalink
Mark Potwora

The police provide this fact........In 2011, 47 motorists in Genesee County who did not wear a seat belt were treated at a hospital for injuries. Those treatments resulted in $309,000 in emergency room charges...What does that prove unless you also add how many motorist were wearing seatbelts and were treated in the emergency room at the local hospital and at what cost..I wear seat belts..But i should be able do so because i want to and not because Big Brother telling me to do so..The above fact doesn't prove any thing without a comparison with seat belts..

May 20, 2014, 1:35pm Permalink
Scott Ogle

"The above fact doesn't prove any thing without a comparison with seat belts."

Only if you're willing to entertain as fact the idea that driving without seat belts is as safe as driving with seat belts. You say you buckle up, so apparently you know better.

May 20, 2014, 1:47pm Permalink
Don Lovelace

The law should be changed so that the material the belts are made out of glows in the dark. Then the Revenuers/Nannys will be able to determine if you are using your seat belt at night. That will most likely double their revenue.

May 20, 2014, 4:36pm Permalink
Ed Hartgrove

Back in the mid-80's, a friend of mine showed up at Sam & Sandy's wearing a T-shirt that had a "seatbelt" emblazoned on it. He told me that it appeared to be working, as he had passed many cops while wearing it, and had never been stopped. I remember how much I laughed when I saw it!

Remember that, Rick L.?

May 20, 2014, 5:02pm Permalink
Mardell Lamb

Sam & Sandy's! Flash backs, Ed! Good ones, too. Aaahhh...back in the day....and I cannot forget to mention LeRoy Bar & Grill! Remember "The Golden Poppy" in Stafford? Oh, there's tons more, but those were definitely my favorites. And "Poor Pete's" in Lime Rock/Caledonia. About 1980ish. AND Dargans. I better stop now before I mess up my reputation even more. Sigh.

May 20, 2014, 6:14pm Permalink

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