The other day a police car rolled up next to me, and I got a bit nervous. I was sober, I had stopped at
the stop sign, I was under the speed limit and my cellphone was tucked away.
But I wasn’t wearing my seat belt.
I scrambled to put it on, and I didn’t get a ticket. It slipped my mind, and I’m usually paranoid about it all year round. You can thank the national “Click It or Ticket” campaign, which begins every year around this time. This year it starts on Monday and runs through June 5.
I asked some Twitter followers how good their compliance is. If they’re to be believed, it’s unanimous that they buckle up.
“Feels strange when I’m not wearing my seat belt,” says local comedian Andy Bumatai.
“Sheer habit for me,” says @PeterLiu47.
And @p_dub says, “So accustomed that when watching old movies or TV shows, I notice when characters don’t buckle up.”
That sort of attitude, and my paranoia, is exactly what the Honolulu Police Department wants.
“Ideally, we want people to do it out of habit, so that it’s unconsciously uncomfortable for them if they don’t wear their seat belt,” said Capt. Keith Lima of the Police Department’s Traffic Division.
Hawaii has the highest seat-belt compliance rate. Currently it’s at 97.6 percent of the population, but it’s been above 90 percent since 2002, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The national average is about 85 percent.
On Monday, Honolulu police officers will be more aggressive in ticketing drivers who haven’t buckled up or who are not complying with child safety seat and booster seat laws. You can be slapped with a $92 fine if you don’t buckle up or up to $500 if you violate the child passenger restraint law.
There will be electronic signs reminding freeway drivers and banners draped over every police substation around the state. There will also be 15,000 posters distributed around the state, and a TV, movie theater and radio ad campaign will get the message across.
Of the 21 traffic fatalities last year that occurred between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m., 13 of the motorists were not wearing a seat belt, according to the state Department of Transportation. Nationally, seat belts saved 12,713 lives in 2009.
That is why a lot of the enforcement will happen at night as well. Last year police ticketed 748 people
in two weeks during the campaign.
“I don’t think many people disagree that seat belts help,” Lima says. “It’s just a matter of putting them on.”
