Police: Buckle those seat belts

BY JENNIFER DOME
Staff Writer

BRICK — The Brick Township Police Department wants all motorists to wear their seat belts.

The department began an initiative on Monday to be on the lookout for those not wearing their seat belts. While police officers always have the ability to pull people over for not buckling up, Brick police Sgt. Donald Ling said this two-week effort will include “strict enforcement.”

The Make It Click enforcement campaign will run May 23 through June 5 and is backed by a $4,000 grant to help the police department put more patrol cars on the road.

Don’t be surprised, Ling said, to see police officers standing on the side of a major highway looking for buckled — and more importantly, unbuckled — seat belts.

Not wearing a seat belt is no longer a secondary offense, Ling said. This means that police officers can pull motorists over simply for not wearing a seat belt and issue a summons, which costs $54.

The Make It Click program is part of the statewide Click It or Ticket seat belt initiative. According to Roberto Rodriguez, director of the Division of Highway Traffic Safety, 82 percent of New Jersey motorists obey the seat belt laws.

“We need to raise the bar and make that percentage higher, which is the goal of the Click It or Ticket campaign,” Rodriguez said in a May 19 press release.

The Division of Highway Traffic Safety awarded 240 grants to state, local and county police departments for the seat belt initiative, according to the press release.