The OPP Spring Seatbelt Campaign is now underway.
Officers on OPP patrolled roads started checking for seatbelt use in vehicles yesterday and the campaign will continue until April 26th.
Constable Steve Starr in Grey County says there will be a lot of attention paid this year to ensure children are properly buckled up.
Starr notes 80 per cent of child car seats are not installed properly.
Starr feels people are starting to get the message that seatbelts save lives — as Grey Bruce boasts a compliance rate of over 90 per cent.
But Starr says there is still more work that needs to be done.
The fine for not wearing a seatbelt is 110 dollars, plus you lose two demerit points.
The driver can also be charged if someone under the age of 16 in the vehicle is not wearing a seatbelt.
If the passenger is over the age of 16 — then they could be charged.
In Grey County — the OPP checked over 13 thousand vehicles during last year’s campaign and handed out seatbelt charges to 163 drivers and 47 passengers.
9 people were also charged for child seat infractions.
10 people were killed in collisions in Grey County in 2008 — an increase from 7 in 2007.
The numbers were better across Ontario in 2008 where there were 137 fewer lives lost and more than 3 thousand fewer injuries in 25 hundred fewer injury collisions.
In Saugeen Shores — Police Sergeant Dave Butcher says the goal is to raise awareness about the importance of wearing seatbelts, using child car seats and booster seats, and road user safety all the time.
Butcher says motor vehicle collisions remain a leading cause of injury-related deaths in Ontario and are the leading cause of injury-related deaths among children and youth.
He also says many deaths can be prevented, simply by wearing a seatbelt or having the child poperly secured in the appropriate child car seat.
That’s because during a collision, properly fastened seatbelts help to distribute the forces of rapid deceleration over larger and stronger parts of the person’s body.