Law enforcement cracking down on safety violations over holiday week

TO THE EDITOR:

For a third straight year, law enforcement agencies in Campbell and Converse counties will join forces for a traffic safety enforcement campaign over the Memorial Day Holiday weekend. The multi-agency effort will include the Wyoming Highway Patrol, Campbell and Converse County Sheriff’s Offices and the Douglas and Gillette Police Departments.

Aimed at enforcing seat belt use to help keep you and your family safe, the national seat belt campaign will take place May 22 through June 4, during one of the busiest travel and holiday weekends of the year. Converse and Campbell county law enforcement are reminding motorists to Click It or Ticket.

“Too often we see the terrible aftermath when people do not wear seat belts,” said Lt. Joseph Scimone of the Wyoming Highway Patrol. “It should be second nature and it should be automatic after sitting down in a vehicle.” As the Memorial Day weekend approaches and the summer vacation season ramps up, “We want to make sure people are wearing their seat belts, it’s the one thing you can do to save your life in a crash.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly half of the 22,441 passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2015 were unrestrained. At night from 6 p.m. to 5:59 a.m., that number soared to 57 percent of those killed. That’s why one focus of the Click It or Ticket campaign is nighttime enforcement. Participating law enforcement agencies will be taking a no-excuses approach to seat belt law enforcement, writing citations day and night. “In 2015, 7 of the 9 traffic fatalities in Converse County and all 4 traffic fatalities on Campbell County roads and highways were not wearing a seatbelt,” Scimone said. Nationally, almost twice as many males were killed in crashes as compared to females, with lower belt use rates, too. Of the males killed in crashes in 2015, more than half (52%) were unrestrained. For females killed in crashes, 42 percent were not buckled up.

“Did you know someone who was killed in a crash because they did not buckle up?” asked Monti Allsop of the WYDOT Highway Safety Office.

“Help us spread this life-saving message before one more friend or family member is killed as a result not wearing a seat belt. Seat belts save lives, and everyone—front seat and back, child and adult—needs to remember to buckle up, every trip, every time.”

As of this release there have been 35 traffic deaths in Wyoming in 2017, compared to 18 this time last year.

For more information on the Click It or Ticket mobilization, please visit www.nhtsa.gov/ciot.