Seat Belt Enforcement Crackdown Begins Today

Warning: Beginning today, SC state troopers and local police and sheriff's deputies will be on the lookout for drivers, specially nighttime drivers, who fail to wear safety belts as part of a coordinated crackdown statewide.

From May 20 to June 2, the South Carolina Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement agencies will increase enforcement of South Carolina’s primary seat belt law as part of the Buckle Up South Carolina (BUSC) safety belt enforcement mobilization. 

SCDPS and local law agencies will focus its annual safety belt enforcement and education campaign on nighttime safety belt use. While daytime safety belt compliance continues to improve, a pocket of the population still fails to buckle up at night, leading to more nighttime highway deaths, according to SCDPS.

Preliminary statistics for 2012 show nearly 64 percent of motorists killed at night were unbuckled at the time of the crash compared to 49 percent who were unrestrained and killed during daytime crashes, according to SCDPS.

BUSC is a statewide safety belt enforcement and public information campaign coordinated by SCDPS in conjunction with national and regional enforcement efforts. The goals are an increase in safety belt usage, a decrease in traffic fatalities and serious injuries and a greater awareness about the role safety belts have in keeping motorists safe, according to SCDPS. 

The state’s safety belt compliance rate set a record high — 90.5 percent —  last year (The 2013 safety belt usage rate is expected to be released in July.). This record rate has likely contributed significantly to the SCDPS Target Zero effort aimed at, not just reducing, but eliminating traffic fatalities. As of May 16 this year, there have been 233 highway fatalities compared to 314 on the same date in 2012; 106 of the 171 people with access to safety belts died unrestrained. 

“While more people are buckling up during the day, far too many choose to disobey the law at night when the risk of getting into a fatal collision actually rises,” said SCDPS Director Leroy Smith in a news release. “The simple act of buckling up could save hundreds of lives each year. We want to bring a focus on this deadly trend especially going into summer when travel on our roads will increase.” 

Even though the focus of the two-week 2013 BUSC campaign is nighttime enforcement, officers enforce the state’s safety belt law year-round — day and night. However, motorists can expect to see increased patrols during the mobilization period, along with radio and television efforts to educate the public.