79° P/CLOUDY, 
Police Ticketing Program Will Enforce Use of Seat Belts
Last Modified: Friday, May 16, 2008 at 6:06 a.m.
More than 15,000 passenger-vehicle occupants died in traffic crashes between the nighttime hours of 6 p.m. and 5:59 a.m. during 2006, reports the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration - and 64 percent of those motorists killed were not wearing their seat belts at the time of the fatal crashes.
The proportion of unbuckled deaths at night is considerably higher than the alarming 46 percent of passenger vehicle occupants who were killed and were not wearing their seat belts during daytime hours across the nation that same year.
That's why the Haines City Police Department has announced that it is joining with state and local law enforcement agencies and highway safety officials from Monday to June 1 to launch an aggressive national Click It or Ticket seat belt-enforcement mobilization to increase seat belt use and to reduce highway fatalities This year will have a new emphasis on convincing more motorists to buckle up - day and night.
Checkpoints and stepped-up law-enforcement activities will be conducted during the national Click It or Ticket enforcement mobilization.
Regular seat belt use is the single-most-effective way to protect people and reduce fatalities in motor-vehicle crashes. In 2006, 72 percent of passenger-vehicle occupants involved in fatal crashes who were buckled up survived the crashes.
Seat belts clearly save lives. But, unfortunately, too many folks still need a tough reminder. That's why law enforcement will be out in force buckling down on those who are not buckled up. Wearing your seat belt costs you nothing, but not wearing it certainly will.
So, unless you want to risk a ticket, or worse - your life - please remember to buckle up day and night: Click It or Ticket.
CHIEF MORRIS WEST
Haines City Police Department
Haines City
Comments
Go to Page 1 2 3 4 | View all comments
May 16, 2008 10:48:28 am
RE: Read the articlei personally think it is a dumb *** law.motor cycle riders dont have to wear a helmet and someone in side a vehicle has to wear a seat belt.pretty soon we want have any rights or be able to make any decisions for yourself.
May 16, 2008 11:04:52 am
Helmets should be a law too. People are afraid to mess up their clothes and hair. Imagine how messy it is when their scalp is seperated from their head or their body is impaled by a steering column.
Welcome to Lakeland, the city of lights. Most of them being stop lights.
May 16, 2008 11:22:38 am
How many Doctors,Lawyers,and Judges own a bike?
It is impossible to know the exact position and the exact momentumof an object at the same time
May 16, 2008 12:20:03 pm
the law stated leo has to have another reason to pull you over--they are breaking state law if that is the only reason--why we have order but no law!!!
May 16, 2008 1:31:39 pm
Ask a trooper, deputy, or municipal police who has been unfortunate enough to pull the duty how much fun it is to patrol 150 feet or more of pavement looking for pieces of a child who got launched through the windshield because of parental neglect. Find the pictures from the crash report. Then complain about seat belt laws.If a person doesn't care about causing nightmares for the police and EMTs for years after you are dead, why should they be concerned over your attitude towards a seat belt ticket while you live?
You'll get over the ticket much faster than they will get over picking up your pieces from the side of the road (and the middle, the median, and another vehicle or two...).
May 16, 2008 1:34:53 pm
true, galan....good insightful post.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
peace on earth, goodwill to man (not me in the avatar photo...lol)
May 16, 2008 1:44:01 pm
you made it so car makers have to put them in cars,mading cars much more expensive and heavier--and than you use a worst case possible to justifie taking away my rights and freedoms--what about the kids going hungry or cant pay the rent because of the ticket--you need to move to russia were law is all that matters!!
May 16, 2008 1:52:58 pm
No, you need to consider someone besides yourself. You might not care that your thoughtlessness causes mental anguish in others, but that doesn't make it right.
But go ahead and blame the police for making you take responsibility for your negligence, just like some criminals do when they are caught robbing, really beating up their woman, or etc.
A person behaving responsibly can't blame a seatbelt ticket on starving their children.
May 16, 2008 1:59:35 pm
maybe we should give parents a ticket if we dont made them brush their teeth--or give the husband a ticket if he doesnt go to the pta meeting at school--there can be no end to this!!easy to think of many more--welcome to the united police state of america!!
May 16, 2008 2:03:21 pm
Since when has saving lives and preventing horrible disfigurement of the human body make America a police state?? How absolutely absurd!!!!!
Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.Leahy
May 16, 2008 2:03:28 pm
LT and Galan: I'm absolutely with you on this one. How many times have we read about fatalities in the newspaper that were accompanied by -- "partially ejected"; "ejected"; "wasn't wearing seat belt"? I wouldn't dream of being in a car without one.
You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists -- Abbie Hoffman
May 16, 2008 2:11:05 pm
the list is endless of rights and freedoms being taken away--what is worst than living in a police state--living in one that pretends not to be!!
May 16, 2008 2:16:11 pm
i agree with the seatbelt laws. i think there should be mandatory helmet laws. driving is not a Right, it is a Privelege. if u don't like the rules of the road, don't drive.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
peace on earth, goodwill to man (not me in the avatar photo...lol)
May 16, 2008 2:18:29 pm
Gee, I am pretty much living as I have for over 60 years now and sitting here posting on a public forum without someone standing over my shoulder!!!! Police state???? Am wondering what your definition of a police state is!!!
Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.Leahy
May 16, 2008 2:24:25 pm
the local officials have a sataiiite on you that can track your every move,if they want to,and you will never know it--as far as i know it cant see inside your house but they are working on it--those things up in space arnt just for cable tv and commications,they also spy on american citizens in complete secerty
Post a comment | View all comments
Next Article in Your Town
Man, 22, Dies in Single-Car Lakeland Crash
LAKELAND | A 22-year-old man died when he apparently lost control of a 1990 Chevrolet Blazer in the 2000 block of East Lake Parker Drive and it hit a concrete electric pole.Miguel Angel Alvarez Jr., whose address was not available, was...
Events Calendar More Events Submit Event
Featured Businesses
5610 Hillview Ct
Lakeland, FL 33810
(863) 683-2782
4820 US Highway 98 N
Lakeland, FL 33809
(863) 858-5612
300 West Lime Street
Lakeland, FL 33802
(863) 802-7000