Law Enforcement Will Show Zero Tolerance

Buffalo, NY – Erie County Sheriff Timothy B. Howard, once again, is reminding motorists to Click It or Ticket. As part of the national seat belt enforcement campaign, law enforcement agencies around the country will be stepping up enforcement May 23 to June 5, just ahead of one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. 

“Every day, unbuckled motorists are losing their lives in motor vehicle crashes,” said Sheriff Howard.  “As we approach Memorial Day weekend and the summer vacation season, we want to make sure people are doing the one thing that can save them in a crash: buckling up.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly half of the 21,022 passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2014 were not restrained. At night from 6 p.m. to 5:59 a.m., that number soared to 57 percent of those killed. That’s why one focus of the Click It or Ticket campaign is nighttime enforcement. Erie County Sheriff’s Deputies will be taking a no-excuses approach to seat belt law enforcement, writing citations day and night. In New York, the maximum penalty for a seat belt violation is $150 for the first offense.

Almost twice as many males were killed in crashes as compared to females, with lower belt use rates, too. Of the males killed in crashes in 2014, more than half (53%) were unrestrained. For females killed in crashes, 40 percent were not buckled up.

The Erie County Sheriff’s Office will have multiple dedicated road patrols and the possibility of road check sites set up throughout the county during this campaign.

Sheriff Howard states, “The bottom line is that seat belts save lives. If these enforcement crackdowns get people’s attention and get them to buckle up, then we’ve done our job.”

For more information on the Click It or Ticket mobilization, please visit www.nhtsa.gov/ciot