California Law Enforcement Cracking Down on Those Who Don't Wear Seat Belts- Watch Out MR

SACRAMENTO, Calif--Aug. 3, 20041, 2004--Law enforcement from Redding to San Diego, including the California Highway Patrol, will be on the lookout for impaired drivers and drivers and passengers not buckling up over the upcoming Labor Day holiday. And that seat belt violation is going to cost more than it did last Labor Day - three times more.

"We're very serious about making sure all drivers and passengers are buckled up," said Sunne Wright McPeak, Secretary of the California Business, Transportation & Housing Agency. "And many people probably don't know that a seat belt violation in California now costs more than three times what it did last summer - between $78 and $89 depending on the county for a first offense."

The Office of Traffic Safety will fund more than $6.5 million in occupant protection grants during FFY 2005 to CHP and several other local law enforcement agencies. This includes $2.5 million that will fund 180 mini-grants throughout the state.

A new California law went into effect January 1 of this year, which allows penalty assessments and court costs to be added on top of a base fine. The cost for not properly restraining a child under 16 also comes with a hefty fine - about $350 per child.

California currently has a seat belt use rate of 90.4 percent, among the highest in the nation. Nationally only 79 percent of motorists buckle up.

But California has big plans to close the gap on the roughly nine percent who still aren't using seat belts. This nine percent represents more than three million vehicle occupants - that's more than the population of 21 other states.

"We're funding programs for law enforcement up and down the state to enable more officers to conduct roving patrols and concentrate special efforts targeting those who don't buckle up," said Secretary McPeak. "Seat belt use is a top traffic safety priority, right alongside impaired driving."

Nationally in 2002, more than 46 percent of all vehicle occupants killed in crashes were unbelted. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that 601 of the 1,336 unbelted vehicle occupants in California in 2002 would have survived had they been wearing a seat belt.