OPP crackdown on seatbelt use was a success

Caledon OPP Constable Linda Kennedy was providing information on seat belts and child restraints at the Canadian Tire store in Bolton recently.

The Ontario Provincial Police checked more than 1.24 million vehicles during the annual spring seatbelt initiative last month.

Four people died as a result of not wearing seatbelts during the provincewide campaign, which ran from April 16 to 28.

The OPP, which is responsible for about 70 per cent of the province's highways, laid 10,753 charges against drivers, 4,481 charges against passengers and charged 274 drivers for not having a probably installed child restraint.

Last year, 117 people were killed on roads patrolled by the OPP as a result of not being buckled up, a 14.7 per cent increase over 2006. So far in 2008, 27 people not wearing seatbelts have died on OPP-patrolled roads, a 28.9 per cent decrease over the same time last year, when 38 people had been killed as a result of not being secured.

"Ontario has one of the highest compliance rates for seatbelt use of any jurisdiction in North America," OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino said. "But there are still drivers out there who don't seem to get it. We had four people die during the campaign because they weren't buckled up. The few seconds it takes to buckle up could be the difference between living and dying if you are involved in a serious collision."

In one incident, OPP stopped a passenger van in which 12 of the 15 people in it weren't wearing seatbelts. The law calls for vehicles to have one seatbelt for each passenger seat.

The OPP was also checking for improperly installed child restraints or young children who weren't in car seats at all. A properly used child seat reduces a child's risk of injury in a motor vehicle collision by as much as 75 per cent, yet as many as 80 per cent of child car seats are used incorrectly.

Municipal police services across the province were also involved in the seatbelt campaign.