Nearly 50 tickets issued during Wichita seat belt enforcement project

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March 08, 2012|By Jim Grawe & Rob Marin | KWCH 12 Eyewitness News

(WICHITA, Kan.) — Update: Officers issued 49 citations during their seat belt enforcement project at Kellogg & Webb Road Thursday evening.

Police say for every one car they stopped, there were two to three they could have stopped.

The good news is, all children were properly buckled in.

Patrol West will do a seat belt enforcement project on March 14.

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Wichita police assemble at Kellogg and Webb. Their mission: catch people not buckled up, like Brandon Dickson.

"I'm not going to lie," Dickson says. "Maybe in the daytime I wear a seat belt but shoot, I'm a big fella, you know. I hate wearing those things, but from now on I'm wearing it."

Wichita police officers target seat belt use at night as part of an effort with the Kansas Department of Transportation.

KDOT has given the department a grant, which it is using to fund seven different seat belt enforcement operations through the end of March. Officials are trying to accumulate data about whether or not people buckle up more during the day than at night.

During one operation last week, officers outside of Patrol South at Pawnee and Broadway handed out 89 citations for seat belt violations. The operation lasted four hours.

Four more operations will happen this month: March 14 on the west side, March 15 on the east side, March 21 on the south side and March 23 on the north side.

The enforcement operations are funded through KDOT. The grant supplies enough money to pay for overtime for four officers and a supervisor for the four hour operations.

Buckle up or get busted, as police take part in a state study on nighttime seat belt use.
1 Asked of 800 Adults Margin of Sampling Error for this question = ± 2.3%Do you wear your seat belt at all times when driving? Only during the day? Only at night? Or do you usually not wear a seat belt when driving?88%All The Time2%Only During The Day1%Only At Night6%Never3%Not Sure2 Asked of 800 Adults Margin of Sampling Error for this question = ± 3.5%Is a $10 fine for not wearing a seat belt while driving too strict? Too lenient? Or just about right?12%Too Strict46%Too Lenient39%About Right2%Not Sure

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