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National ‘Click It or Ticket’ seatbelt, child restraint awareness campaign begins

MEDIA RELEASE

Hawaiʻi Island police are informing the public that the enforcement period for the National “Click It or Ticket” campaign starts today and runs through June 4. During this period, police will increase island wide enforcement of seat belt and child restraint laws.

Under a law signed on May 20, 2013, the driver now is responsible for all other occupants of the vehicle. If the driver is stopped and any passenger is not using a seat belt, car seat, or booster seat—whether in the front seat or back seat— the driver will be the one cited.

Police will enforce child passenger restraint laws and will ticket drivers if children under the age of four are not properly restrained in a child safety seat—or in a booster seat until age 7. Child restraint and booster seat violators must go to court. They face a fine of $100-$500 (depending upon the number of offenses) and must attend a mandatory four-hour class.

Seat belts are the single most effective safety technology in the history of the automobile. A NHTSA study of lives saved by vehicle technologies found that, between 1960 and 2012, seat belts saved more lives—329,715, to be exact—than all other vehicle technologies combined, including air bags, energy-absorbing steering assemblies, and electronic stability control. Of course, seat belts have been available much longer than many of the other safety features the study reviewed. But they remain your first line of defense in a crash and your first step toward safer driving.

We have made enormous progress in increasing seat belt use, but far too many people are still dying because they are not buckled up during crashes. Before you even turn the key, you and everyone in your vehicle should be buckled up—every trip, day and night.

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