Make sure you buckle up!
For the next week, provincial police will put added focus on seatbelt enforcement, as they launch their 2008 Fall Seatbelt Campaign today.
Grey County OPP Constable Steve Starr says Ontario has a pretty good compliance rate already, with 93.4% of people buckling up in the car.
Starr says they’re hoping to raise the rate across the province to 95% by 2010.
He says statistics show for every one per cent increase in usage, five lives are saved.
Starr says they’re lucky a lot has changed over the past few decades, and now it’s the rarity to see driver’s without a seatbelt on.
But he says they still need to work on getting the message through to some young people.
He notices when the car is full of teenage passengers, the likelihood that they’ll buckle up lessens.
Constable Starr reminds drivers that it is your responsibility to make sure every passenger in your car has a working seatbelt, and uses it.
He says if a passenger is under the age of 16 and isn’t wearing a seatbelt, you as a driver will be charged, whether you’re the passenger’s parent or not.
Starr says they also have to work on drivers who aren’t buckling up when they’re taking a “quick trip.”
Starr adds it’s important to ensure infants and toddlers are buckled properly into car seats and booster seats.
A free car seat safety clinic will run today from 10AM until 2PM at Owen Sound Volkswagen.
Grey County OPP issued 780 seat belt charges last year, and so far this year they’ve issued 556 seat belt charges.
