Full Notification

As the unofficial start of summer, the Memorial Day holiday weekend is a busy time for Californians. Each year, the highways fill with families in vehicles, on their way to start their summer vacations. To help keep drivers and passengers safe, The Berkeley Police Department is reminding motorists to fasten their seatbelts.  The national seat belt campaign, Click it or Ticket, will take place May 21st through June 3^rd, to run concurrently with the busy travel season.
 
The Berkeley Police Department will assign additional officers during the two-week campaign on special traffic patrols specifically to stop and ticket both drivers and passengers for failing to use the vehicle’s safety belt restraints.  This will also include drivers who fail to secure children in the proper child restraint seats.
 
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly half (48%) of the passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2016 were unrestrained. At night from 6 p.m. to 5:59 a.m., that number soared to 56 percent of those killed. That’s why one focus of the Click It or Ticket campaign is nighttime enforcement. Police Departments, County Sheriff Offices and the CHP will be taking a no-excuses approach to seat belt law enforcement.  In California, the minimum penalty for a seat belt violation is $162.
 
“This Memorial Day period and, in fact, every day, we want everyone in every vehicle to remember that buckling up could be their greatest defense in a crash,” said Rhonda Craft, Director of the California Office of Traffic Safety. “Putting on a seat belt is one of the quickest, simplest and most effective ways to ensure you and your loved ones remain safe and sound on the road.”
 
Statewide, in 2016, 426 individuals were found to be unrestrained at the time of the collision.  It is estimated that 74 would have survived had they simply buckled up. 
 
This enforcement effort is funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and remember – to Report Drunk Drivers - call 911.