Berwick Click It Or Ticket campaign finds 19 seat belt violations

Berwick police took action in the 2022 Click It Or Ticket campaign Thursday, operating a checkpoint that resulted citations for 19 seat belt violations.

Police in Berwick and Morgan City, the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office and other local agencies are participating the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission’s Click It Or Ticket effort, which focuses on enforcement of seat belt laws.

The Berwick Police Department conducted its seat belt checkpoint on Sixth Street in Berwick.

Over the span of four hours, 471 cars were screened with 22 citations being issued with a total of 27 traffic violations:

--19 seat belt violations.

--Two child restraint violations.

--One no driver’s license.

--Two suspended driver’s license.

--One insurance violation.

--Two window tint violations.

While not all crashes are survivable, statistics show that wearing your seat belt is the single most effective thing you can do to increase your chances of surviving a crash or limiting the severity of injuries during the event of a crash, the Berwick Police Department said in a news release.

According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2020, 10,893 unbuckled passenger vehicle occupants were killed in crashes in the United States. In that same year, 58% of passenger vehicle occupants killed at night (6 p.m.–5:59 a.m.) were not wearing their seat belts.

That’s why one focus of the Click It or Ticket campaign is nighttime enforcement.

Participating law enforcement agencies will be taking a no-excuses approach to seat belt law enforcement, writing citations day and night.

In the town Of Berwick, the maximum penalty for a seat belt violation is $76. First offense is $51.00 and second offense is $76.