Police: Click It or Ticket

Beginning Monday, local law enforcement will set up more than 100 checkpoints and dedicated patrols to enforce seatbelt use in what they call their "Click It or Ticket" campaign.

State Troopers will join forces with Suffolk County Police as well as local law enforcement officers statewide over the next two weeks to ensure that motorists begin the summer travel season buckled up.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that people driving in the evenings are least likely to buckle and the most likely to die in a crash. In 2009, nearly two-thirds of drivers who were killed in nighttime accidents were not wearing seatbelts.

“Perhaps people feel less likely to be stopped at night for not wearing seatbelts, but they are putting themselves at tremendous risk,” said Captain David Candelaria of the state police.

Last year troopers issued more than 22,000 tickets during the two-week period for safety restraint violations, of which 1500 were for unbuckled children.

“It is unconscionable that in today’s society anyone would drive down the road with an unrestrained child or with a young child in an adult seatbelt,” said Candelaria. “Our troopers have seen too many tragedies and will gladly give a driver a ticket to prevent seeing another,” he said.

New York State's Vehicle and Traffic Law requires the use of safety restraints as follows:

• All front seat occupants ages eight and older must wear a seat belt.
• All rear seat passengers ages eight through fifteen must wear a seat belt.
• All children younger than four years old must be restrained in a federally approved child safety seat or if the child’s weight exceeds forty pounds, in a child restraint system in conjunction with safety belts, the restraint system must meet size and with recommendations of the manufacturer.
• Children ages four through seven, inclusive, must be properly restrained in an appropriate child restraint system, one that meets the child’s height and weight recommendations according to the restraint manufacturer. The vehicle safety belt alone is not a child restraint system.
• The driver is responsible for passengers younger than 16 who are found to be in violation of the law.

According to New York State’s Vehicle and Traffic Law