EAST PROVIDENCE — The East Providence Police Department, in conjunction with its neighbors in Seekonk and the Rhode Island State Police, kicked off the annual "Click it or Ticket" enforcement …
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EAST PROVIDENCE — The East Providence Police Department, in conjunction with its neighbors in Seekonk and the Rhode Island State Police, kicked off the annual "Click it or Ticket" enforcement program with a "border to border" campaign Monday morning, May 23, at Martin Middle School.
As part of the national seat belt enforcement campaign, law enforcement agencies around the area will be stepping up enforcement May 23 to June 5, just ahead of one of the busiest travel weekends of the year for Memorial Day.
The kick-off event included students from Martin performing a seat belt song that they have developed to remind their parents and grandparents to buckle up every trip, every seat, day or night.
"Every day, unbuckled motorists are losing their lives in motor vehicle crashes, " said East Providence Police Chief Christopher Parella. "As we approach Memorial Day weekend and the summer vacation season, we want to make sure people are doing the one thing that can save them in a crash; buckling up."
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly half of the 21,022 passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2014 were unrestrained. At night, from 6 p.m. to 5:59 a.m., that number soared to 57 percent of those killed. That's why one focus of the Click It or Ticket campaign is nighttime enforcement. Participating law enforcement agencies will be taking a no-excuses approach to seat belt law enforcement, writing citations day and night.
In Rhode Island, the penalty for seat belt violation is $40 for persons age eight and older. Child restraint violations for persons under age eight are $85.
Statewide, 16 unbelted vehicle occupants died in 2015. Nationally, almost twice as many males were killed in crashes as compared to females, with lower belt use rates, too. Across the United States, of the males killed in crashes in 2014, more than half (53%) were unrestrained. For females killed in crashes, 40 percent were not buckled up.
"If you ask the family members of those unrestrained people who were killed in crashes, they'll tell you they wish their loved ones had buckled up," added Chief Parella. "The bottom line is that seat belts save lives. If these enforcement mobilizations get people's attention, and get them to buckle up, then we've done our job."
For more information on the Click It or Ticket mobilization, please visit nhtsa.gov/ciot.
— Photos by Rich Dionne
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