Seat belt enforcement blitz underway through holiday

Law enforcement agencies across Indiana are looking for drivers who aren’t using their seat belts, in the national “Click It or Ticket” enforcement blitz which runs through June 2nd.

Organized around Memorial Day weekend, the campaign will have extra officers including Seymour police and Indiana State Police troopers on overtime patrols making sure drivers and passengers are buckling up and children are properly secure. Participating law enforcement agencies will be taking a no-excuses approach to seat belt law enforcement, writing citations day and night.

In Indiana, drivers can be stopped and both drivers and passengers can be cited for lack of seat belt use, but also for each unbuckled passenger under the age of 16. Additionally, children under eight must be properly restrained in a federally approved child or booster seat.

Those not buckled up in crashes were three times more likely to get injured when the driver was speeding and seven times more likely when the driver was impaired according to the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute statistics.

The overtime patrols are funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration with grants administered by ICJI.