[JHeath]

http://heraldargus.com/hanews/archives/ha/...y.php?id=377832

Posted Online: 5-16-2007
‘Click It’ campaign slated before new seat belt law starts
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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Police around Indiana begin a two-week crackdown Friday on people not wearing seat belts, an effort that will include using a method that a new state law will soon prohibit -- checkpoints.

The latest “Click It or Ticket” campaign will include television and radio commercials to warn motorists of stepped up seat belt enforcement, which will involve a “zero tolerance” policy of ticketing those who are not buckled up as required.

The ads will be concentrated on media formats popular with males aged between 18 and 34, since the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, or CJI, says that group is least likely to wear seat belts.

The stepped up enforcement will include a series of seat belt enforcement zones -- which includes channeling vehicles at certain locations through checkpoints -- and more officers on the roads, said CJI spokeswoman Mica Perry.

Mike Cunegin, executive director of the institute, said the goal of the campaign from May 18 to June 3 is not to write tickets.

“The goal is to convince motorists to wear their belts in order to save lives,” he said.

The Governor’s Council on Impaired and Dangerous Driving also wants to make motorists aware of a law that starts July 1 that requires almost everyone to wear seat belts in Indiana, including those riding in back seats and traveling in SUVs and pickup trucks.

Indiana’s current law requires only front-seat passengers and children under age 16 to wear belts, and young children to be in child-restraint seats. Adults were not required to buckle up in pickups or vehicles registered as trucks.

The new law contains several seat belt exemptions, including people using trucks on farms, riding in parades or in the back of ambulances.

Statewide seat belt use is currently at 84.3 percent, according to the CJI. But it said a roadside observational survey showed that in May 2006, pickups had an overall restraint use of 53.5 percent.

The seat belt law will cover more vehicles and occupants, and Indiana will receive $15.7 million in one-time federal money for road safety programs and projects because pickups are included. It also will prohibit seat belt checkpoints.

The primary proponent of having that provision in the final seat belt bill this past legislative session was Republican Rep. Jerry Torr of Carmel. He said police can still stop motorists solely for seat belt violations.

“But at least law-abiding citizens wearing seat belts won’t have to be slowed down and stopped so their nanny state can check for enforcement (through checkpoints),” Torr said.

Torr said he did not have a problem with sobriety checkpoints, since drunken drivers endanger other’s lives, not just their own. But he equated seat belt checkpoints to “protecting myself from myself.”

[Southsider2k12]

Its pretty low to use a method of law inforcement that will soon be illegal. Though I agree with the sentiment, that is a crappy way to do operate.

[Max Main]

Seatbelt and helmet laws are Nanny State, for sure, but there is a simple way to make people wear them without resorting to intrusive nannylaw:

Prohibit insurance and govt agencies from paying for any damages or injuries when someone is not wearing a seatbelt or helmet.