‘Click It Or Ticket’ Seatbelt Enforcement Project Concludes

By Andrew Gorosko

During a two-week period of heightened seatbelt enforcement that ended on November 30, town police officers issued 95 infractions and 14 warnings to motorists for failure to wear seatbelts, according to police Sergeant Christopher Vanghele.

The national enforcement program in which town police participated is known as “Click It or Ticket.”

A seatbelt infraction carries a $37 fine for failure to wear a seatbelt as is required by state law.

Sgt Vanghele listed some statistics from the town police’s enforcement project.

During the course of the project, police made five drunken driving arrests, issued 26 infractions for speeding, handed out 56 warnings for speeding, issued 67 infractions for various other violations, and gave motorists 110 miscellaneous warnings, he said.

Also, police issued one infraction and gave two warnings for illegal possession of tobacco by a person under age 18, and handed out one infraction for illegal possession of alcohol by a person under age 21.

During the two-week Click It or Ticket project, town police also teamed with police from Bethel, Brookfield, and Redding for a regional approach to seatbelt enforcement, the sergeant said.

During the period, town police also had extra officers on roving patrols to enforce the drunken driving laws.

Sgt Vanghele said that a survey of seatbelt usage in Newtown conducted before the enforcement project began indicated that 94 percent of motorists wore seatbelts while driving. After the enforcement project, the compliance rate had risen to 94.5 percent, he said.

In Connecticut overall, seatbelt compliance rose from 78 percent in 2001 to almost 86 percent in 2007, he said.

In the US, seatbelt usage exceeds 90 percent in a dozen states. The state with the highest compliance is Hawaii, where 97.6 percent of motorists wear seatbelts. New Hampshire has the lowest compliance rate at 63.8 percent. New Hampshire is the only state that does not require the drivers of passenger vehicles and their front seat passengers to wear seatbelts.