Watertown Police Beefing Up Seatbelt Patrols

WATERTOWN, MA – The Watertown Police Department will be keeping a special eye out for folks not wearing their seatbelts this month. Police are taking part in the nationwide Click It or Ticket campaign alongside the Highway Safety Division, Massachusetts State Police and up to 158 other departments in the state.

Massachusetts has one of the lowest seatbelt use rates in the country at 74 percent, well below the national average of 90 percent, according to a press release. In 2016, 59 percent of the 242 people killed in car crashes in Massachusetts were not wearing their seatbelts, police said.

Seatbelts saved an estimated 115 lives across the state that year, and an additional 45 deaths could have been prevented if seatbelt usage was at 100 percent, according to the National Highway Traffic Administration.

"Enforcing the seatbelt law means more people buckling up, and as a result fewer deaths and injuries in our community," Watertown Police Chief Michael Lawn said in a statement. "We'd rather give a motorist a warning or citation, than have to tell their family that they were killed or hurt because they chose not to wear their belt.

PHOTO courtesy of CDC