LOS ANGELES, Calif.–Between today and June 5, if you don’t “click it,” you stand a good chance of getting a $142 ticket.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department warned that it and other departments throughout the state will look for drivers and passengers without seatbelts for the next two weeks as part of the 2011 Click It or Ticket campaign.
The fines and fees for a first-time adult seatbelt violation is a minimum $142. The minimum is $445 for children under 16 the first time.
Nighttime passengers are among the least likely to buckle up and most likely to die in crashes when unrestrained. Almost two-thirds of those who died in nighttime crashes nationwide in 2009 were not wearing seatbelts. So nighttime enforcement is a priority of this year’s campaign, the sheriff’s department said.
“Lives are saved when people wear their seatbelts,” Sheriff Lee Baca said.
“California’s current seat belt use rate of 96.2 percent is an all-time high, but that still leaves nearly one million people who are not buckling up,” said Capt. Shaun Mathers of the Sheriff’s Risk Management Bureau. “In order to save lives, citations will be issued without warning. It’s not just
about avoiding a costly ticket; it’s about keeping the ones you care about alive.”
