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Deputies To Be On Lookout For Unbelted Motorists as Part Of Statewide Safety Belt Compliance Initiative
Cold Spring Police will participate again in Click It or Ticket initiative
Both the Putnam County Sheriff's deputies and the Cold Spring Police Department will once again be participating with law enforcement agencies across New York in the Click It or Ticket campaign, the statewide initiative aimed at increasing motorists' use of safety belts and child car restraints. "This is a law enforcement effort that can save lives," said the Sheriff, "because we are raising awareness about a plain and simple fact: using safety belts and child car restraints often means the difference between being killed or seriously injured in a crash versus walking away unscathed or with only minor injuries."
Mayor Anthony Phillips told the PCN&R that the Cold Spring Police Department, which ran a successful Click It
or Ticket operation last year, will embrace the enforcement effort again in 2006. "Safety belts clearly save lives. But unfortunately too many folks still need a tought reminder, so we are going to be out in force buckling down on those who are not buckled," said Cold Spring Officer Darrell Burris.
This year's stepped-up enforcement action is scheduled to take place from May 22d through June 4th. On those days, enforcement officials will set up checkpoints along Putnam County roadways and will stop motorists who are not wearing safety belts, or who are transporting children who are not in the appropriate child safety restraints. Under the Click It or Ticket zero tolerance
policy, drivers and passengers over 16 years of age will be issued tickets for noncompliance with safety belt and child restraint laws.
Over the past several years, the majority of motor vehicle occupants severely injured or killed in Putnam County crashes were not wearing safety belts. Everyone drivers and passengers -should buckle up every time they get into a vehicle, whether traveling across the country or just across a mall parking lot. Younger drivers as a group are in what is a triplethreat zone of motoring inexperience, risk-taking behavior, and low safety belt usage and vehicle fatality and injury rates are significantly higher for the younger age group.
"The Click It or Ticket program isn't about seeing how many tickets deputies or officers can issue," the Sheriff Smith pointed out. "This enforcement campaign is all about raising folks' awareness and encouraging safety belt and child restraint usage, thereby saving lives and avoiding terrible tragedies. So, for everyone's sake, I hope drivers and passengers will choose to click it, instead of getting the ticket."
"Too many people still take the attitude that it will never happen to them. But fatal crashes can and do happen every day. So we will be out in force showing zero tolerance for anyone not buckled up," Cold Spring's Officer Burris concluded.
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