May 13-30, 2011
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Click It or Ticket
Seat Belt Enforcement
Where We Are Today
Safety Belt Law
Child Passenger Protection Act
 Click It or Ticket
The Naperville Police Department is joining with thousands of State and local law enforcement agencies and highway safety officials across the Nation from May 13-30, 2011, to launch an aggressive national Click It or Ticket seat belt enforcement mobilization to increase seat belt use and reduce highway fatalities and injuries – with a new emphasis this year on convincing more motorists to buckle up – day and night. During the two-week enforcement period, local law enforcement agencies in Illinois, including the Naperville Police Department, will focus their efforts toward seat belt compliance by placing the greatest number of officers on the roads specifically looking for unbelted vehicle occupants.
Seat Belt Enforcement
Studies have shown wearing seat belts greatly reduces the number of deaths and injuries caused by motor vehicle collisions. As a result, the State of Illinois enacted the mandatory seat belt law in 1985. Through the work and dedication of law enforcement agencies and legislation, Illinois seat belt compliance rate was the highest in 2010 at 92.6%.
The Naperville Police Department is dedicated to the safety of our motorists and passengers. Consequently, traffic officers utilize the mandatory seat belt law as an injury prevention measure. In order to promote seat belt compliance, officers from the Patrol Division practice aggressive enforcement of the mandatory seat belt law, issuing hundreds of seat belt and child car seat citations each month. However, in addition to our enforcement efforts, the Naperville Police Department also places emphasis upon seat belt education so the community understands the importance of properly wearing seat belts to reduce personal injury or death if involved in a collision.
Where We Are Today
Motor vehicle crashes kill thousands
In 2007 alone, 41,059 people were killed on our Nation’s highways, and for young people 3 to 6 years old and 8 to 34 years old, motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of death, based on leading-cause of-death data.
Buckling up saves lives
Of those passenger vehicle occupants who were buckled up and involved in fatal crashes in 2007, 72 percent survived the crashes; moreover, seat belts are credited with saving an estimated 15,147 lives nationwide during that year.
Too many still don’t take belt laws seriously
Teens and young adults, nighttime drivers of every age, young men 18 to 34, and pickup drivers and their passengers continue to have some of the lowest belt usage rates.
Thousands die unbuckled
Motorists who fail to wear seat belts regularly risk not only a ticket, but their lives — over 14,000 passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2007 were NOT buckled up.
Employing safe driving practices, day and night is the key to keeping drivers, their passengers, and other motorists on our Nation's highways safe. A seat belt can mean the difference between life and death.
Seat belt enforcement zones and other stepped-up law enforcement activities will be conducted during the national Click It or Ticket enforcement mobilization, which runs from May 14-31, 2010.
- The Naperville Police Department will be out in force stopping and ticketing unbelted motorists.
- Unless you have money to burn and want to risk a ticket, or worse – your life, you need to always remember to Click It or Ticket day and night.
Safety Belt Law
Drivers and Passengers
- Each driver and front seat passenger shall wear a properly adjusted and fastened seat safety belt.
- Each driver under the age of 18 years and each of the driver’s passengers under the age of 19 years shall wear a properly adjusted and fastened seat safety belt.
- Each driver transporting a child 8 years of age or more, but less than 16 years of age, shall secure the child in a properly adjusted and fastened seat safety belt or an appropriate child restraint system.
- Fine: $60
Child Passenger Protection Act
Transporting a child under 8 years
- Any person transporting a child < 8 years in a non-commercial vehicle of the first division, any truck or truck tractor equipped with seat safety belts, a motor vehicle of the second division with a GVWR of 9,000 lbs. or less, or a RV shall properly secure him or her in an appropriate child restraint system.
- The parent or legal guardian of a child under 8 years shall provide a child restraint to any person who transports his or her child.
- A child weighing more than 40 pounds may be transported in the back seat while wearing only a lap belt if the back seat is not equipped with a lap and shoulder belt.
- Fine: $120
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