Lyon County Sheriff’s Officers issued 141 tickets last month in a two-week “Click It or Ticket” campaign to remind drivers and their passengers about state laws on use of safety restraints.
Deputy Richard Johnson said that 110 contacts were made with drivers during the 54.5 hours devoted to the project. The added costs of extra patrol during the campaign was paid for through the Kansas Department of Transportation.
“There were a total of 148 violations out of 110 contacts,” Johnson said in a news release. “Most of the contacts had multiple violations.”
The campaign provided additional officers to be visible during the end-of-school and holiday times that often result in accidents. The officers also provided education for drivers and their passengers about the seat-belt laws.
The breakdown of violations was:
• Seat belt or child restraints, 13
• Speeding, 48
• Driving under the influence of an intoxicant, 3
• Stop sign violation, 17
• Driving while license suspended, 3
• No driver’s license, 5
• No proof of insurance, 20
• Minor in possession of alcohol or cereal-malt beverage, 4
• Transporting open container of alcohol or CMB, 4
• Other violations, 31
Kansas law requires that children driving age and below must wear safety restraints, which can be car safety seats for infants, booster seats, and traditional belts and restraints, depending upon the age and size of the child.
Johnson said earlier that having a child not in a proper safety restraint is a primary violation, which means it is cause for an officer to stop a vehicle.
For drivers and passengers 18 years of age and above, there must be another violation involved before the vehicle can be stopped and the driver cited for that, plus the safety-restraint violation.
“They have to be cited for whatever reason they were pulled over to begin with,” Johnson said. “Children are primary law. The adults, or aged 18 and above, is a secondary law.”
coldhardtruth (anonymous) says...
They devoted 54.5 hours and wrote 114 tickets for “Click It or Ticket”, but only 13 tickets were for no seatbelt?
June 4, 2009 at 2:48 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
madpoet (anonymous) says...
Maybe people were wearing their seatbelts more since they advertised this campaign. They claim a small percentage of people actually wear seatbelts but most people I know do. So either the stats are wrong or I'm running with the wrong crowd. :)
I saw a person driving down our county road the other day with a toddler in his lap. The driver no less, not the passenger! I about had a litter of kittens right there. That's called a "redneck airbag" since the kid with be crushed by the adult in an accident. My thought was great, and he's breeding. There goes the gene pool.
June 5, 2009 at 9:59 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )