Through the end of this week, concluding on June 4, the Livingston Police Department is conducting a seat belt enforcement and education initiative, as part of the national “Click It or Ticket” campaign to crack down on unbuckled motorists and passengers.
These check points can easily be spotted throughout town – and that’s the point. This high visibility, high saturation patrol is designed not simply to hand out tickets, but rather to reiterate the lifesaving value of wearing a seat belt. It is something that is so simple, yet so many people still choose not to buckle up despite it being the easiest way to protect oneself on the road. More than 15,000 lives are saved nationally each year due to seat belt use, according to the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety.
While these types of campaigns can occur with relative frequency around holidays, this specific one is focused on passengers riding in rear seats. While New Jersey front seat belt usage rate is nearly 93 percent, only 48 percent of back seat passengers wear seat belts, according to surveys cited by the Livingston Police Department.
During the last statewide Click It or Ticket campaign in 2022, 145 New Jersey police agencies yielded 8,373 seat belt citations, 3,315 speeding summonses and made 278 impaired driving arrests.
It is very easy to avoid being compiled into the next round of these statistics. Just buckle up.
