HARRISBURG - PennDOT today announced that part of a $1.8 million statewide investment of federal funds will help municipal and state police participate in a national Click It or Ticket enforcement wave cracking down on motorists not wearing their seat belts.
Approximately 600 municipal police departments and the Pennsylvania State Police will carry out seat-belt enforcement activities Nov. 18 through Dec. 4, with an emphasis on nighttime enforcement.
This mobilization will also utilize Traffic Enforcement Zones, which target enforcement on roads with high unbuckled-crash rates, as an enforcement method for nighttime crack downs. Nighttime enforcement is a priority because nighttime passenger vehicle occupants are among those least likely to buckle up and most likely to die in crashes when unrestrained.
The extra enforcement is funded by PennDOT's investment of federal funds from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
According to PennDOT statistics, there were 524 unbelted highway fatalities in Pennsylvania in 2010, a 16.2 percent increase from 2009. Of those who died in nighttime crashes in Pennsylvania in 2010, 75 percent were not wearing seat belts at the time of their fatal crashes.
Visit www.DriveSafePA.org for more information on Pennsylvania's traffic-safety initiatives.