Minneapolis Police Cracking Down On Seatbelts

From May 21 through June 7, the Minneapolis Police Department will be participating in a nationwide campaign to promote seatbelt use.

Called "click it or ticket," the program has local police departments run overtime patrols.

In a statement emailed to reporters, the department said seatbelts save lives in rollover accidents. 34 people over the last three years were killed in crashes in Hennepin County because they weren't wearing their seatbelts, the department said.

In rollover crashes, unbelted motorists are usually ejected from the vehicle. In most cases, the vehicle will then roll over them.  In other types of crashes unbelted motorists will often break their teeth or nose on the steering wheel and dashboard, and even slam into and injure or kill others in the vehicle.

Properly wearing a seat belt reduces the risk of fatal injury to front seat occupants by 45 percent in a car and 60 percent in a light truck.

Seat belts are the most effective means of protecting oneself from injury while riding in a vehicle. In a crash, odds are six-times greater for injury if a motorist is not buckled up.

“This campaign is not about writing tickets, it’s about reminding the public that seatbelt use saves lives.  As the officers who respond to serious and fatal accidents and see the consequences of a failure to buckle up we take the enforcement of seatbelt use seriously,” Sergeant Rich Lee of the Minneapolis Police Department’s Traffic Enforcement Unit wrote in the same statement. “We want motorists to be aware that we are out there and encourage them to be the first enforcers by speaking up to remind other passengers to belt up.”