Police Increase Seat Belt Enforcement in May

Be sure to buckle your seat belt because this month the Montgomery County Police and Maryland law enforcement will be focusing on the state’s seat belt laws as part of the national “Click It or Ticket” campaign.

From May 1 through June 4, law enforcement will be hammering down on those who are not wearing their seat belts, according to a release from the Montgomery County Police Department. The penalty for not wearing a seat belt is a $25 fine and the penalty for not having a child in a child safety seat or booster seat is $60.

Maryland law mandates that every child less than 8 years old must be secured in a federally approved child restraint system. A child restraint system is not necessary if a children less than 8 years old is 4 foot, 9 inches or taller or weighs more than 65 pounds. The State Highway Administration lists the laws and pictures of acceptable child restraint systems depending on age.

In 1997, Maryland instituted a primary safety belt law, allowing police officers to stop a motorist simply for not wearing a safety belt. From 1997 to 2009, seat belt use rose from 80 percent use to 94.01 percent use, according tothe SHA website. During this same 12-year time period, the annual number of traffic-related injuries in Maryland decreased by more than 26 percent from 1997 levels.

By the end of 2010, the state hoped to have 94.5 percent of drivers wearing seat belts, according to Maryland's "Choose Safety for Life" campaign website.

“The officers of the Montgomery County Police Department want to remind our driving public that it is our goal to keep both drivers and passengers safe,” police said in a release on Saturday. “Anyone not wearing a seat belt increases their risk for injury or even death…and during this campaign increases the risk of being ticketed.”