'Click It Or Ticket' Starts Monday

CLINTON TOWNSHIP, MI — The Macomb County Sheriff’s Office is participating in the annual two-week “Click It or Ticket” campaign starting Monday. The county will be stepping up seat belt enforcement to increase seat belt use, save lives and reduce injuries, according to Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Renee Yax.

In 2016, deputies stopped 253 vehicles, issuing 104 seat belt citations and 170 additional violations for other traffic offenses during the Click It or Ticket campaign. According to the Michigan State Police Criminal Justice Information Center, using a seat belt reduces the risk of injury or death in a traffic crash by 45 percent.

Last year, 196 people who died in traffic crashes in Michigan were not wearing their seat belts. Of those, 134 were male and 62 were female. Michigan law requires drivers, front seat passengers and passengers 15-years-old and younger in any seating position to be buckled up.

Children must be in a car seat or booster seat until they are eight-years-old or 4-foot 9-inches tall. Children under four must be in the back seat.

The fine for a seat belt violation starts at $65. The Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning is coordinating this seat belt enforcement effort which is supported by federal traffic safety funds. Grant-funded seat belt enforcement is part of Michigan’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan signed by Gov. Rick Snyder in 2013.