PD Gearing Up For Seat Belt Campaign

Two dozen law enforcement agencies in Monmouth and Ocean counties will participate in an annual seat-belt enforcement campaign. The agencies each received $4,000 grants for the national Click It or Ticket campaign, which will run from May 18 to 31, as reported here on The Lakewood Scoop. "I think the one message we really want to get out to the public is the most effective safety device in an automobile is a seat belt," said Pam Fischer, director of the state Division of Highway Traffic Safety. "We really want everyone to understand how important it is to buckle up." Fischer said drivers and passengers who wear seat belts reduce their chance of being injured or killed in a crash by up to 75 percent. "If you don't do it for yourself, do it for your family," she said of seat-belt use. "They want you to get home at the end of the day." During last year's campaign, police in New Jersey issued 46,026 summonses for failure to wear a seat belt and 6,831 speeding tickets, and made 642 drunk driving arrests. Seat-belt use tends to be lower at night, which can be a more dangerous time to drive, so nighttime enforcement will be part of this year's campaign, Fischer said. State law requires drivers, front-seat passengers and everyone younger than 18 to wear seat belts. While adults in back seats are not required by law to buckle up, they risk injury or death by not doing so, Fischer said. This year's local grant recipients are Allenhurst, Deal, Eatontown, Freehold Township, Holmdel, Interlaken, Keansburg, Keyport, Marlboro, Middletown, the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office, Neptune, Spring Lake Heights, Union Beach, West Long Branch, Barnegat, Berkeley, Lacey, Lakehurst, Lakewood, Little Egg Harbor, Manchester, Stafford and Toms River. App