Seat Belt Fastened? Manchester, Lakehurst Police Will Be On The Lookout

With seat belt use on the decline, police departments around New Jersey -- including Manchester and Lakehurst -- and across the country will be reminding motorists and their passengers to buckle up -- by ticketing drivers.

The annual “Click It or Ticket” campaign, which runs through May 31, aims to increase seat belt usage across the country; roughly 84 percent of drivers and passengers wore seat belts as of the most recent survey conducted in 2011, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In New Jersey, the 94.51 percent of people wore seat belts in 2011; that has fallen to 87.59 percent, the lowest usage rate in the state since 2005, according to the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety.

This year, a total of nine Ocean County towns, including Lakehurst, Manchester, Point Pleasant and Point Pleasant Beach, plus the county sheriff’s office, each have received grants of $4,000 to add extra patrols during the two-week enforcement period.

The division’s 2014 Click It or Ticket report said that in 2012, 21,000 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes. Of those, 52 percent were not wearing their seat belts. In New Jersey, an average of 150 unrestrained motor vehicle drivers and passengers are killed in crashes each year, the division says.

Last year, 374 municipalities participated in the campaign, with 26,635 seat belt citations issued. Additionally, police officers also wrote 692 child restraint and 4,363 speeding citations, and made 944 DWI arrests, the division said.

In Ocean County, where 12 of 19 law enforcement agencies participated, 1,007 seat belt citations were issued during the 2014 campaign, along with 11 alcohol-related DWI tickets and 10 drug-related DWI tickets.

Of those, Manchester issued 152 seat belt citations, and Lakehurst issued 44 seat belt tickets. Manchester also ticketed nine drivers on charges of driving under the influence of drugs, the state report said. Both towns received grants last year.

In Monmouth County, 1,937 citations for failure to wear a seat belt were issued during the 2014 campaign.

“Most people buckle up for safety,” the state division says. “But for some people, it is the threat of the ticket that spurs them to put on a safety belt.”

Statistics the NHTSA is citing this year in its campaign:

• From 2009 to 2013, more than 63,000 lives were saved in crashes because the vehicle occupants were wearing seat belts, including 12,000 in 2013.
• In 2013 crashes, 53 percent of men who were not wearing a seat belt were killed, as were 41 percent of unbuckled women.
• In 2013, 63 percent of those killed in pickup truck crashes were not wearing seatbelts.

Watch one of the ads the NHTSA is using this year to promote seatbelt usage: