Buckle Up: Police Cracking Down On Seat Belt Enforcement In Somerset County

SOMERSET COUNTY, NJ — Fasten your seatbelts. Police in Somerset and Hunterdon Counties will be cracking down on drivers who are not buckling up as part of the national "Click It Or Ticket" 2023 Campaign by the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety.

The crackdown will begin on Monday, May 22, and run through Sunday, June 4. Police will be using high visibility seat belt checkpoints and saturation patrols, in combination with local and national publicity efforts, to reiterate the life-saving value of seat belts.

Here is the full list of law enforcement agencies in Somerset County receiving grant money, and how much they received, per the AG's office:

• Bedminster: $1,885
• Bernards: $1,885
• Bernardsville: $1,885
• Bound Brook: $1,885
• Bridgewater: $1,885
• Far Hills: $1,885
• Franklin: $1,885
• Green Brook: $1,885
• Hillsborough: $1,885
• Manville: $1,885
• Montgomery: $1,885
• North Plainfield: $1,885
• Peapack and Gladstone: $1,885
• Raritan: $1,885
• Somerset County Sheriff: $1,885
• South Bound Brook: $1,885
• Warren: $1,885
• Watchung: $1,885

According to the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety, in 2022 there were 694 people in the state killed in traffic crashes. 40 percent of the motor vehicle occupants who died in these crashes were not wearing a seat belt.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that seat belt use reduces the risk of serious injury or death in a crash by 45 percent.

In New Jersey, a key focus of this year’s Click It or Ticket campaign is to promote seat belt usage by adults in all seating positions in the vehicle, both front and rear seats. The front seat belt usage rate in New Jersey currently stands at 92.97 percent. However, adults riding in rear seats are buckling up at a significantly lower rate, only 48 percent, according to the most recent surveys.

During the 2022 Click it or Ticket campaign, 145 New Jersey police agencies participated in the two-week initiative. As a result of the effort, law enforcement officers issued 8,373 seat belt citations, 3,315 speeding summonses and made 278 impaired driving arrests.