HARRISBURG PA – Just ahead of the Memorial Day holiday the Pennsylvania State Police, the state Department of Transportation and about 450 local police departments – including officers from Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township – will step up speeding and car seat belt enforcement efforts for a three-week period between Monday (May 24, 2010) and June 13.
Don't be caught without wearing one, troopers and police warn.
The state police will use airplanes to clock drivers’ speeds from above, and then send a radio call to waiting troopers and other officers on the ground to stop violating vehicles. Local police will supplement those operations with traditional traffic enforcement along targeted roads, the state announced Thursday (May 20).
Lower Pottsgrove’s police department has been active almost monthly in state traffic enforcement programs, Chief Michael Shade noted. During April (2010) alone, he reported to the township Board of Commissioners, his officers spent 12 hours over several days on “Drive Safe In PA” tasks at a cost of about $610 that will be reimbursed. The department handled 104 traffic violations last month, Shade said.
Troopers’ Commissioner Col. Frank E. Pawlowski said night-time drivers will be specific targets of the latest Click-It-Or-Ticket campaign. More than half of car crash deaths in the state during 2009 that involved unbelted occupants occurred between 6 p.m. and 5:59 a.m., Pawlowski said. Of those, more than a hundred were killed between 10 p.m. and 2:59 a.m.
“Not wearing a seat belt continues to be one of the leading factors related to injuries and fatalities on Pennsylvania highways,” said PennDOT Secretary Allen Biehler added.
Under Pennsylvania’s seat belt law, all front seat passengers must buckle up. If motorists are stopped for a traffic violation and are not wearing a seat belt, they can receive a second ticket and second fine.
State child passenger safety laws also require children under age 4 to be properly restrained in an approved child safety seat anywhere in the vehicle. Children ages 4 to 8 must be restrained in an appropriate booster seat; children ages 8 to 18 must be in a seat belt.
Photo from UpToSpeedNews.com
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More power to em. Not wearing your seatbelt is simply stupid people. In a crash a belted driver remains able to control his vehicle after the initial impact often alowing one to brake the vehicle and steer it to safety. An unbelted driver is thrown about injured and often incapacitated and at that point along for the ride in his careening vehicle till it impacts again or slows rolls or otherwise stops.
Wear that belt and tell your passengers your not starting the car till they do as well. Teach your teens the same rule.
Driving to fast simply allows you less time to react and stop or avoid an object, child, or oncoming vehicle. Driving the limit will allow you to safely negotiate the wildest swinging road safely and keep your vehicle in your lane. Speeding kills, plain and simple. Me, I’d rather get there than be on anautopsy slab where other try to find out why you were being so dumb.
Drive safe and save a life, could be yours or even mine….. Who needs to spend money on fines with the economy the way it is.