Law enforcement across the state issued 3,604 citations during Vision Zero’s Click It or Ticket campaign throughout the month of May.
The enforcement was aimed at raising awareness of seat belt use. It’s part of Vision Zero’s initiative to reduce North Dakota’s number of traffic fatalities to zero.
Of the total citations issued, 2,536 were for seat belt violations. 31 were for improper child restraint. Officers also issued an additional 400 speeding citations, 23 distracted driving citations and seven DUI arrests.
Justin Bailey is Safety Program Information Officer with the Highway Safety Division of DOT.
"It's one of the easiest ways to prevent or reduce injury severity in crashes. In the past five years, more than half the people that have been killed in vehicle crashes were not wearing seat belts in vehicles that had seat belts available to them; so we definitely can see a correlation between not wearing a seat belt and being at a higher risk for severe injury or even death in some cases."
The citation for not wearing a seat belt in North Dakota includes a $20 fine. Improper child restraint penalties are $25 and a point on one’s driver’s license.
