“86 percent of motorists in Garden State use their seat belts and comply with the law,” said Roberto Rodriguez, director of the Division of Highway Traffic Safety. We are targeting the 14 percent who refuse to wear their seatbelts, which is a primary law in New Jersey. Police would rather write a thousand tickets than have to knock on one family’s door with news that a loved one didn’t survive a crash because they weren’t wearing a seat belt.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says seat belt use reduces fatalities by 45 percent and reduces the risk of moderate to critical injury by 50 percent. New Jersey has one of the highest seat belt usage rates in the nation, and is poised to increase that number to a new record level in 2006. The number of motorists buckling up in New Jersey has steadily risen for nine consecutive years to the current compliance rate of 86 percent.

Police agencies all over New Jersey are conducting saturation patrols and checkpoints to snare seat belt violators. The Division issued $4,000 grants to 156 departments to cover overtime costs for the initiative. Many departments are participating without grant funding in the effort to enforce the seat belt law.

The ‘Click It or Ticket’ mobilization runs from May 22nd to June 4th.

(list of grantees attached)