More than 16,000 tickets were issued to unbuckled drivers and passengers during the annual statewide Click It or Ticket mobilization.
That according to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, which reports 248 citations for child passenger safety seat violations were also issued during the effort, May 24 to June 6. Last year during the Click It or Ticket mobilization, officers wrote 7,582 safety belt tickets and another 228 tickets for child passenger safety seat violations.
Primary seat belt enforcement, which became effective on June 30 of last year, was a major reason why the number of citations for safety belt violations in this year’s mobilization was more than double the 2009 figure, according to the DOT’s chief of safety programs, Dennis Hughes.
Some 360 law enforcement agencies, including the State Patrol, sheriffs’ departments and police departments, mobilized for Click It or Ticket 2010, making it the largest coordinated traffic enforcement effort in Wisconsin history. Hughes said the goal is not to increase the number of safety belt tickets but to get people to buckle up voluntarily, and reduce deaths on the state’s roads.
Officers participating in Click or Ticket this year also issued 8,441 speeding violations, 2,55 operating after revocation or suspension violations, and made 1,048 operating while intoxicated (OWI) arrests and 282 felony arrests