A press release from the McHenry County Health Department:
“Click it or Ticket it” campaign begins May 9
Woodstock Ill. – As motorists take to the roadways this Memorial Day holiday, police are urging everyone to buckle up.
Beginning May 9, hundreds of Illinois law enforcement agencies will join the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), Illinois State Police and traffic safety advocates in the 2014 National Click It or Ticket seat belt enforcement campaign, cracking down on motorists who are not belted in the front or back seat.
As of January 1, 2012, all Illinois drivers and passengers must wear seat belts in all seating positions in the car, not just the front seat.
During statewide observational surveys conducted by IDOT in 2013, the overall usage rate for rear seat occupants was 77.4 percent versus 93.7 percent for drivers and front seat passengers.
In 2012, back seat passengers in Illinois accounted for 46 fatalities and over 5,000 injuries.
Out of those 46 fatalities, 30 of them were not wearing their seat belt.
Patrick McNulty
“Seat belts are the single most important safety device in your vehicle. They have saved countless lives and prevented countless numbers of injuries over the years,” said Patrick J. McNulty, Public Health Administrator for the McHenry County Department of Health.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), research has shown that when lap and shoulder belts are used properly, the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passenger car occupants is reduced by 45 percent, and the risk of moderate to serious injury is reduced by 50 percent.
“Seat belts clearly save lives. But, unfortunately, too many people still need to be reminded. I urge everyone driving on our roadways this summer to drive carefully, do not drive impaired and, most importantly, buckle up, every trip, every time, day or night, front or back,” said McNulty.
The Illinois Click It or Ticket campaign runs from May 9 to May 26. Buckle up and encourage your loved ones to do the same. Wearing your seat belt is your best defense against an impaired driver.
For more information about the Click It or Ticket campaign, please visit www.buckleupillinois.org.
And along comes Mac County to tell me the opposite of what every study I’ve read says.
That just as many deaths have occurred because of seatbelts, depending on the type of accident, as has been saved.
Want proof of the lunacy, of continuing to spend millions on this seatbelt drivel?
Show me one insurance company that has reduced rates, since this garbage started in the 80’s, due to cost savings.
There isn’t any.
Get Patrick a reflective vest and garbage bag, to pick up roadside trash, alongside what’s her name.
These Gov. people need more busy work to stay out of mischief.
Will this include Czech (sic) points?
Where and when will the Czech points be located so I can try to avoid them?
I certainly don’t wish to risk an accident caused by this distraction.
I’m all for seatbelts but some police officers get over zealous (maybe because of the money?).
Looks like you don’t want to follow any laws.
I don’t like a lot of laws but it is the law and like it or not you should follow them.
If people followed the law then we wouldn’t have to spend money on these seat belt drives.
Once again, voter is into the nanny-state crappola.
NOT THE LAW!
These are stupid ideas that stupid people legislate.
Look in your Bible for real law.
Everything else is nobody’s business but your own! Following your logic we will be forced to obey everything that every simpleton thinks is a good idea.
Nice way to be free.
If Illinois makes driving illegal….then their will be NO driving fatalities.
What aggravates me is that the police PROMISED they would NEVER primarily enforce this law.
This promise was necessary to get the support to pass the law.
The state and the police LIED to us.
What a surprise.
Shame on me for trusting them. No more.
I’m afraid the Health Dept lost any credibility it had years ago when it royally screwed up the McCullom Lake Cancer study.
That whole sad story cast a dark shadow of this County that exists today in the tortured souls of those victims alive and those that passed.
In the case for government the argument remains “At what point does something become an issue of public interest”? S
eatbelt wearing or not is no more the purview of government than enforcing safe use of knives in our personal kitchens.
In spite of lawmakers saying this law would never be used as a reason to pull people over but only used as a safety addendum to a legitimate traffic stop clearly the police want more reasons to interject themselves into areas patently outside their core mission.
Unlimited police, either by internal review(a joke in every case) or external review(judges a overwhelmingly are reluctant to limit police), have created a mistrustful public.
When middle class honest people resent and/or fear the police due to their total lack of accountability while couching insane behaviors as legitimate police activity our society has broken.
Using a fairly neutral activity(wear or don’t wear a seatbelt) as the reason to terrorize the people who have hired and worked to pay the very thugs doing the terrorizing is the very height of insanity.
Then the police crow about how well they did in their “enforcement” activity while using local, state and federal grants(read”a ton of money”) as they cost people who can barely afford gasoline ever more money for no discernible societal benefit.
No wonder people are frustrated and removing themselves from the electoral process.
The General Assembly made that promise when the law was passed.
A subsequent General Assembly overrode that decision/promise.
Priest – You are right on target!
Seatbelt enforcement has absolutely nothing to do with safety and everything to do with generating revenue.
The same is true (and perhaps even more so) with red light camera enforcement.
But, all of that aside…
The role of government was not, and is not, to protect us from ourselves, but to preserve our inalienable rights to life, liberty and property.
If anyone can demonstrate how my not wearing a seatbelt somehow deprives or infringes on their inalienable rights, then I will be the first to advocate for legislature to protect them.
But, to suggest that government should weigh in and actually legislate laws enforcing such, is nothing less than progressive/liberal, big government ideology! This can NOT be argued!!
That being said, anyone calling themselves a Republican or Conservative or against big government who advocates for seatbelt laws, DUI checkpoints, etc. is either ignorant of fact… hypocritical… or of Progressive!
ideology…
Voter – If you subscribe to the ideals of our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, then no law can be considered legitimate which contradicts or is hostile to “Natural Law”.
That being said, there are MANY, MANY laws that are, in fact, truly unlawful…
If we consider the “law” to be whatever laws our govt legislates, then every genocide committed by despotic governments was “within the law”… Which is exactly why we can NEVER just obey laws simply because they have been legislated.
Though the General Assembly is a joke, you’re letting the police off too easy, Cal.
The police are the enforcing power of the government.
The General Assembly has done more than just “over-ride” that promise.
They are now having their Department of Transportation “reward” police offices for enforcing the law.
The police are now puppets of the government…with guns.
The Illinois General Assembly have devolved in to incompetent bullies.
Here, here.
Mark your calendars.
I actually agree 110% with Priest.
Great comment, CLM!