Click It or Ticket Is Underway

From now through Sunday, June 2, drivers can expect increased law enforcement presence on Cherokee County roadways as the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office joins over 140 other law enforcement agencies in aggressively enforcing Kansas occupant restraint and other traffic laws as part of the 2013 Kansas Click It or Ticket traffic enforcement campaign.  This activity is supported by a grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT). 

Drivers can expect strict enforcement of both the Safety Belt Use Act and the Child Passenger Safety Act.  These acts require that all occupants must be appropriately restrained.  Law enforcement officers can stop vehicles and issue tickets when they observe front seat occupants, or children under the age of 14, riding without proper restraint.  Occupants, ages 14 and over, are cited individually.  In the event that a passenger under the age of 14 is observed to be unrestrained the driver will be cited.  Children under the age of four must be secured in an approved child safety seat.  Children, ages four through seven, must be securely belted into an approved booster seat unless taller than 4 feet 9 inches or heavier than 80 pounds.  Children, ages eight through 13 must be safety-belted.   In addition, the act prohibits persons under the age of 14 from riding in any part of a vehicle not intended for carrying passengers, such as a pickup bed. 

The aim of Click It or Ticket is simple:  to drastically reduce the number of preventable deaths and injuries that occur when unbelted drivers and passengers are involved in traffic crashes.  According to KDOT’s Traffic Safety section, almost half of those killed in crashes are not belted in.  At the same time, 98 percent of crash occupants who suffer no injuries of any kind are belted in.  In general, unrestrained occupants who are involved in a crash have, at most, only about an 8% chance of not suffering some degree of injury.  And all for simply not taking the brief moments necessary to secure themselves and ensure that their passengers are secured.

According to Sheriff David Groves, “Everyone knows there are seat belt laws and that seat belt and child safety seats save lives and reduce injury.  But too many drivers play the odds and don’t buckle up, or require their passengers to buckle up because they think a crash is unlikely.  But, when a crash does happen – and it’s generally within five miles from home – the four seconds it takes to buckle up looks like time well spent.  I want drivers in Cherokee County to remember that it’s not only about your driving skills, but it’s also about the skills, habits and circumstances of the drivers sharing the road with you.

“When you don’t buckle up yourself, or require your passengers to buckle up, you’re making the decision for everyone in your vehicle that the drivers you meet are not going to be distracted by sleepiness, cell phone conversations, texting, their coffee, changing radio stations, or kids fighting in the back seat.  And you’re assuming that no animal, mechanical or roadway circumstance will cause you to suddenly slow or veer out of your lane. 

“The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office is committed to aggressively ticketing violators of seat belt and child safety laws, and all other traffic infractions – such as speeding and reckless driving– that make our streets and highways unsafe.”