Police will be watching Michigan residents to ensure they are wearing their seat belts this holiday weekend.
“If you don’t want a ticket, wear your seat belts,” MSU police Sgt. Randy Holton said.
MSU Department of Police and Public Safety is one of 450 agencies across the state participating in a campaign increasing seat belt enforcement. Billboards with the slogan “Click it or Ticket” will promote the campaign across the state.
Anne Readett, spokeswoman for the Michigan State Police, said accidents definitely increase over holiday weekends like Memorial Day.
“An average death from traffic accidents in Michigan is four per day,” she said. “Over holiday weekends it increases to five or six.”
MSU police will be enforcing the law like many other departments.
“Along with the state campaign, this is nationwide,” Holton said.
Zero tolerance will be the policy enforced by MSU police, he said.
“This weekend we’re going to be looking a little harder than we normally do,” Holton said. “We tell the officers to go out and focus on seat belts use.”
The goal is to achieve 100 percent compliance with seat belts use through media and enforcement, Holton said.
“I hope we don’t even have to write a ticket,” he said.
East Lansing Police Department and the Ingham County Sheriff’s Department also will be participating in the campaign this weekend.
The seat belt law was changed in 2000. Before then, police could only ticket for lack of seat belt use if the driver was pulled over for another reason. Now, seat belt enforcement can be the primary reason to pull over a car.
The campaign targets men between 18 and 34 years old. Officials say this group is most likely to not wear seat belts.
Memorial Day has a potential for increased accidents due to high traffic, and presents an opportunity to reach people, said Pat Eliason, passenger safety programs coordinator for the Office of Highway Safety and Planning.
The office is using funding to buy radio and commercial time slots that target young males, rather than utilizing the free public service announcements of the past.
“We want to let the public know we’re serious about law enforcement,” she said.
