Click it or Ticket In Atlantic County and Ocean City

The Atlantic County Sheriff's Office will join the national effort to crack down on motorists and passengers not wearing seatbelts as part of the "Click it or Ticket" campaign from May 21-June 3, the sheriff's office announced this week.

The Ocean City Police Department already joined local and national law enforcement officers and highway safety advocates as part of the program, doing it from May 7 through June 14. During the mobilization, officers will be cracking down on motorists who fail to wear their seat belts – both day and night.

As part of such campaigns, high visibility seat belt checkpoints will be set up and saturation patrols will take place, and there will be a local and national publicity campaign designed to educate the public on the life-saving value of wearing seatbelts.

“Using a seat belt is the simplest way for a driver and his or her passengers to protect themselves when traveling,” Acting Director of the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety Gary Poedubicky said. "In 2010 alone, seat belts saved an estimated 12,546 lives nationwide.”

In 2011, front seat belt usage for New Jersey drivers and passengers escalated for the 15th year in a row, this time 94.51 percent, the sheriff's office said. According to Poedubicky, the ultimate goal is 100 percent compliance.

He added the goal of the campaign this year is to raise the amount of backseat passengers who use seatbelts. That statistic currently stands at 35 percent, despite laws mandating adult backseat passengers to wear their seatbelts.

“New Jersey has a strong front seat belt usage rate, but there is still work to do,” Poedubicky said.  “To meet our goal, we must continue both enforcement and public outreach efforts that educate all motor vehicle occupants about the importance of buckling up, every ride.”

“Atlantic County has always been a supporter of the campaign. Of course drivers who aren’t wearing seatbelts receive tickets, but also all the advertising and media surrounding the campaign ensures that drivers are more aware of the consequences and more likely to buckle up,” Atlantic County Sheriff Frank X. Balles said.

According to the sheriff's office, during the 2011 “Click it or Ticket” campaign, 419 police agencies participated in the two-week initiative. During the campaign, law enforcement officers issued 32,228 seat belt citations, 5,865 speeding summonses and made 953 drunk driving arrests.