A SEATBELT road safety campaign in Warwickshire found that people are still not belting up.
Warwickshire Road Safety Partnership ran the seatbelt road safety campaign in May and June using the well-known phrase ‘it doesn’t take a brain surgeon’ to demonstrate that wearing a seatbelt is simple.
But despite the message, 86 per cent of men (37 men) and 14 per cent of women (6 women) in the 39 vehicles stopped by officers during the National Police Chief Council seatbelt enforcement operation had chosen not to wear a seatbelt.
As a result, six people were given words of advice and 37 people received Traffic Offence Reports. The vast majority were over 25 years old.
PC Simon Dalby, from the Operational Patrol Unit, said: “Most people we see during our patrols do wear a seatbelt because wearing a seatbelt is such an easy thing to do and it could save your life. But seatbelts only work if you are wearing one and there are still a reluctant or forgetful few that don’t. That’s why we will continue to run regular operations to detect those not wearing a seatbelt to help educate drivers and passengers.
“Our work with National Highways on operations such as Tramline is particularly important because we target some of the fastest roads in Warwickshire looking for driver and vehicle offences and shockingly seatbelt offences make up around 20 per cent of these. That’s why new technology such as the National Highways Sensor van that uses AI is so exciting. It is a game changer as it can look at extremely high volumes of drivers on our roads and detect whether they are wearing a seatbelt. With all these changes we really would urge the most reluctant drivers and passengers to please belt up.”
To help encourage the final few people that don’t currently wear seatbelts, PACTS the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety is calling on the government to increase the penalties for those not belting up.
Philip Seccombe, Police and Crime Commissioner for Warwickshire and Chair of WRSP, said “Most people wear a seatbelt because it’s such an easy thing to do. Camera detection technology is coming on in leaps and bounds and it won’t be long before we can detect every driver who is not wearing a seatbelt. If you are one of the minority that doesn’t belt up please take responsibility for your own safety on the roads and the safety of your friends and family in your vehicle by always wearing a seatbelt.”
