Although 85 percent of V.I. residents are using seat belts, folks at the Office of Highway Safety and the V.I. Police Department want 100 percent of the residents to buckle up.
In order to reach that goal, the VIPD announced its annual “Click It or Ticket” enforcement campaign will begin Monday and run through June 6. Last year 600 citations were issued during the campaign.
“It is the law that everyone must be wearing a seat belt,” said Barbara McIntosh, administrator at the Office of Highway Safety under VIPD. “It has been proven over and over that seat belts save lives.” She commended the community for the 85-percent usage of seat belts.
She said there are stories where people are in serious accidents and are ejected from the vehicle and sustain fatal or severe injuries, because they weren’t wearing seat belts. And there are the good luck stories where it is a serious accident and people walk away, because they were buckled up.
“It is advisable that parents have their children in car seats and buckled up,” MacIntosh said. “Children are our most precious cargo.” She added children 13 and under must ride in the back seat.
St. John Deputy Chief Darren Foy said any officer seeing the lack of seat belt usage will be giving out tickets. The fine for the driver in the first offense is $50 per person not buckled up. It can go as high as $200 per person for repeat offenders.
Foy said most of the offenders are males, and it usually happens at night. He said the enforcement is up to traffic patrol, and there will be strategic areas targeted in saturated mass patrols and directed individual patrols.
The issue of unbelted passengers in the back of pickup trucks was brought up during the media conference Wednesday at the police administration building in Hannah’s Rest. McIntosh said there was an enforceable law, but it was watered down last year in Senate and is not enforceable; but the law is currently being worked on.
“Patrols will be done to come to a common goal of 100-percent seat belt usage,” Foy said.
