You should always buckle up when you get inside a vehicle, but that’s especially true this week as Minnesota is in the midst of a Click It Or Ticket campaign.
The Minnesota Department of Traffic Safety Office of Traffic Safety announced that drivers should be on the lookout for extra law enforcement officials who will be specifically on the road to ensure seat belts are being worn. The extra enforcement period began yesterday and will run through September 21.
“It’s so simple to take two seconds to buckle up, and you may not get a second chance in a crash,” Mike Hanson, director of the Office of Traffic Safety, said in a news release.
Seat Belt Use At Record High
The enforcement campaign is part of the larger nationwide Toward Zero Deaths seat belt crackdown, and officials are hopeful that this year’s campaign won’t see many citations. That’s because a recent study found that seat belt use in Minnesota is at an 11-year high, with 94.7% of Minnesotans saying that they use a seat belt when in a vehicle. That’s the highest rate since 2013 when 94.8% of Minnesotans said the same. The Office of Traffic Safety also noted that 93.6% of young adults said they always wear a seat belt while in a vehicle, which is a 10-year high, and pickup truck seat belt use sits at 91.9%, which is an all-time high in Minnesota.
It’s clear that the vast majority of adults regularly wear seat belts in Minnesota, but hundreds if not thousands of Minnesota will still earn citations during the crackdown, and all of those tickets will add up. While some areas only impose a $25 fine for seat belt violations, you can expect your total costs to balloon up to $100 or more when court fees and administrative fees are included. For example, in Itasca County, a seat belt violation will run you $110, which is going to hurt your wallet a bit more than a $25 fine.
Monetary costs aside, wearing your seat belt is one of the simplest things you can do to protect yourself in the event of an accident. Nobody expects to get in a car accident, but if it happens, a seat belt can significantly increase your likelihood of surviving the crash. You can’t put a price on your health and your life, so take a couple seconds to make sure that you and everyone in your vehicle is buckled up this week and beyond so that you can stay out of trouble and stay out of harm’s way if an accident occurs.
If you need help fighting a seat belt citation or related driving matter in court, be sure to connect with Avery and the team at Appelman Law Firm today at (952) 224-2277.