County officials from Rowan and Cabarrus are working this month to “buckle down” on drivers not using seat belts and child restraints.
Rowan
Sheriff’s deputies and Salisbury, Spencer and China Grove police joined the first-ever, regional enforcement blitz Thursday in a Click-It-or-Ticket traffic point in Spencer. Officers enforced adult seat belt or child passenger safety violations for about two hours, writing more than 20citations. These citations include:
- Two child restraint violations.
- One seat belt violation.
- Five no-operators’ license violations.
- Seven expired inspections violations.
- Three expired registration violations.
- Three failure to carry license.
- Two revoked licenses.
- One fictitious registration.
- One fictitious information to an officer.
This check point was part of a state-wide Click It or Ticket campaign running from May 21 through June 3. Officers are making an aggressive high-visibility effort to reduce accidents and injuries.
“Most check points like this, you’re not going to get a lot of (seat belt) violations,” said Deputy David Earnhardt. He said it is more common to see expired inspection stickers and license tags and people driving with a suspended license or without a license at all.
Earnhardt said about 95 percent of child safety seats are incorrectly installed. At a recent safety seat clinic, where parents bring their cars to be inspected, eight of the 220 checked were installed correctly.
In attempt to combat the problem, the State Fire Marshal’s office is promoting “Buckle Bear,” an animated teddy bear used to teach children ages 2 to 5 about bike safety and child restraints. The Sheriff’s Department and Salisbury Police recently got one each. Earnhardt and officer G.T. Beam went through six hours of training to use the bear as a teaching tool.
Frank Thomason, telecommunications manager, and some of his staff from the 911 communications center were at Thursday’s check point with a mobile communication unit, running license tags.
The Governor’s Highway Safety Program chose Rowan County as one of about 14 stops in the state. Bill Stout, deputy director for the safety program, said they selected Rowan because of the quality of law enforcement in the area and that law enforcement in the area focuses on traffic enforcement.
“These law enforcement agencies know what’s going on down here,” Stout said. “It’s not about writing citations. It’s about saving lives.”
Cabarrus
Kannapolis and Concord Police, Cabarrus County units of the N.C. Highway Patrol, the Cabarrus Sheriff’s Department and the Department of Motor Vehicle teamed up for two check points in Kannapolis on May 17, writing more than 60 citations.
On Lane Street, officers wrote 32 citations in one hour including:
- Seven seat belt violations.
- Twelve drivers license violations
- Eleven registration violations.
Later that day, on Boy Scout Camp Road, officers wrote 33 citations in two hours, including:
- Six seat belt violations.
- Fourteen drivers license violations.
- Seven registration violations.
- One possession of stolen property.
Click It or Ticket is part of an ongoing national initiative to increase seat belt use and is sponsored by the N.C. Governor’s Highway Safety Program, National Safety Council, Air Bag & Seat Belt Safety Campaigning and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
According to N.C. Governor’s Highway Safety Program statistic, 80 percent of drivers and passengers in North Carolina use their seat belts, exceeding the national average of 71 percent. Seat belt use varies greatly from state to state, from 38 percent in South Dakota to 90 percent in California.
Nationwide, traffic accidents are the leading cause of children’s deaths, killing more than 2,000 each year, and among the leading causes of death for adults.
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