'Buckle Up New York' Campaign Results Released: Police

RIVERHEAD, NY — After a two-week initiative, the Riverhead Town Police Department has released results of the 2017 Buckle Up New York — Click It or Ticket Campaign.

During this year's, Buckle Up New York campaign, run from May 22 through June, the Riverhead Police Department conducted four daytime seat belt/safety checkpoints and one night time seat belt enforcement checkpoint in various parts of town, police said.

The checkpoints resulted in 59 summonses being issued for seat belt violations, five for child restraints, and 139 summonses for other vehicle and traffic violations, police said.

Overall, Riverhead Police issued 528 summonses during the two-week campaign. The results, which includes the department's patrol division's enforcement efforts, included 102 summonses issued for seat belt violations, six child restraint violations, and 372 other vehicle and traffic violations such as un-inspected vehicles, unregistered vehicles, unlicensed drivers, equipment violations and operating a vehicle while utilizing a cellphone, police said.

As part of the Buckle Up New York campaign, the Riverhead Police Department was required to perform seat belt compliance surveys before the beginning of the campaign and after the conclusion of the campaign.

To that end, police recorded a seat belt compliance rate of 92 percent before the campaign and recorded a seatbelt compliance rate of 94 percent after the conclusion of the campaign.

"As expected the after-campaign results were higher than the pre-campaign results by 2 percent," police said. "The natural tendency is that this rate will steadily decrease as time goes on until it levels off to the state average of 92 percent."

Although the campaign ended on June 4, the Riverhead Town Police Department will continue to emphasize the importance of seat belt use through their enforcement efforts and will continue to aid in New York State's attempt to improve on their 92 percent seat belt compliance, police said.

Riverhead Police are also participating in New York State's Selective Traffic Enforcement, or STEP, program throughout the summer months; the campaign aims to enforce aggressive driving type violations such as speeding, unsafe lane changes, fail to signal and disregarding a stop sign or red light, in an effort to reduce traffic accidents and traffic fatalities.

In 1984, New York State became the first state to enact a mandatory seat belt law; the law became effective in 1985.

New York's seat belt law is a "primary enforcement law," police said, meaning an officer may stop a driver for not wearing a seat belt. Increasing seat belt and child safety seat use is the most effective way to reduce crash-related injuries and fatalities, police said.

Buckle Up New York, Click It Or Ticket is a statewide, zero-tolerance enforcement effort coordinated by state police, local agencies, sheriff's offices and the governor's traffic safety committee to increase safety restraint use in New York, police said.

Last year, New York State matched its record compliance rate of 92 percent for the second consecutive year; for seven years, the state's compliance rate has been at or more than 90 percent, police said, adding that nationally, the compliance rate is 88.5 percent.