Tough seat belt enforcement continues

Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2003 | 9:23 a.m.

Local police and Nevada Highway Patrol troopers are continuing their crackdown on motorists who do not wear seat belts.

The state Office of Traffic Safety, a division of the Department of Public Safety, is alerting motorists to the seat belt law with ads airing statewide.

Officers are increasing enforcement of the seat belt law through Nov. 30.

"Wearing a seat belt is not an option, it's the law and we enforce it every day," said Trooper Rocky Gonzalez of the Nevada Highway Patrol. There are no exceptions and no excuses, he said.

Of the 284 motorists killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2002, 146 were unbuckled. Authorities estimated that half of those victims would have survived if they had been wearing a seat belt.

Nearly 22 percent of Nevada motorists still do not wear seat belts. The public announcements combined with enforcement are efforts to get more Nevadans to buckle up.

"With increased traffic on the roads during the holiday season, motorists need to protect themselves by buckling up," Chuck Abbott, chief of the Office of Traffic Safety, said.

For many motorists who fail to buckle up, the threat of a ticket has proven more effective than the threat of injury or death, Abbott said.