Unbuckled motorists face crackdown

Marisa O’Neil

Buckle up or pay up, local police are warning.

Costa Mesa and Newport Beach police departments will be writing

more tickets to motorists who aren’t wearing seat belts starting

Thursday. The weeklong campaign is part of a statewide effort to get

more people to wear their safety belts.

Some people still don’t realize police can pull them over just for

not wearing a seat belt, Costa Mesa Police Officer Bryan Wadkins

said.

“People tell us all the time, ‘You’re not allowed to pull us over

for that,’” he said.

Those caught unbuckled can get $85 citations, Wadkins said. And

drivers can get tickets if they’re buckled up but their passengers

aren’t.

The California Office of Traffic Safety is promoting the message,

“Buckle up. If you won’t buckle up to save your life, then buckle up

to save yourself a ticket.” Both Costa Mesa and Newport Beach

received grants from the agency to hire extra officers for the

increased enforcement periods.

Extra officers will be on duty from Thursday to Aug. 18 just to

look for people driving without their seat belts fastened, Newport

Beach Police Sgt. Steve Shulman said. The added enforcement is about

education, he said.

Statewide, nearly 9% of people don’t wear their seat belts,

according to the California Office of Traffic Safety. If everyone in

the state wore them in 2001, 571 lives would have been saved and

13,063 serious injuries would have been prevented, they reported.

“We have a really good usage rate compared to other parts of the

country,” said Marilyn Sabin, a spokeswoman for the agency. “But that

last 8% equals about 3 million people. That’s more than the

population of about 20 states. We’re doing a really good job but feel

we need to get the rest of the folks to buckle up.”

During the last increased enforcement period, from May 24 to June

6, Costa Mesa officers wrote 1,649 tickets for seat belt violations.

Locally, officers have seen a 5% increase in seat belt usage, Wadkins

said.

“A lot of times, people are not paying attention,” he said.

“Everyone is in such a hurry. It’s just one of those things people

overlook. People need to get in the habit from a young age, so they

feel uncomfortable without it.”

A second period of increased seat belt enforcement will run from

Sept. 2 to Sept. 8.