RCMP ramps up seatbelt enforcement

Seatbelts save lives, and if anyone is found not wearing one in a vehicle, they will be fined.

It’s that simple, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is stressing that fact through its Occupant Restraint campaign. Barrhead RCMP detachment Sgt. Bob Dodds said officers will be educating through enforcement, which means tickets will be handed out to anyone not wearing their seatbelt. Each ticket comes with a $115 fine.

“A ticket is the least of the consequences for not wearing your seatbelt,” Dodds said. “The worst consequence could be losing a life.”

For the fourth quarter of 2010, 144 reportable accidents occurred within the Barrhead detachment’s coverage area, with eight injuries resulting from those accidents, Dodds said. Had people not been wearing their seatbelts, the number of injuries would undoubtedly be much higher, he said.

Research and collision investigations throughout the province have shown that using seatbelts increases the chance of survival by 50 per cent. According to Transport Canada, almost 40 per cent of drivers and passengers killed in collisions were not wearing their seatbelts at the time of the collision. The ultimate goal of the seatbelt campaign is to increase the number of people wearing seatbelts and using child restraints.

Throughout his career, Dodds said he has witnessed first-hand the difference it can make when people in a vehicle wear a seatbelt. He has seen many fatalities that could have been prevented had the victims been buckled up.

“I once came across a rollover where the driver was killed. He was thrown from the vehicle, because he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. The passenger in the vehicle, who was wearing a seatbelt, walked away with no injuries.”

Drivers are responsible for ensuring children in the vehicle are buckled up. However, there is a specific ticket for adult passengers who refuse to wear a seatbelt, and the responsibility is not put on the driver.

“We get a lot of excuses from people about why they aren’t wearing a seatbelt,” Dodds said. “And, a lot of people ask us when we’re issuing them a ticket ‘don’t you have anything better to do?’ I would rather issue a ticket than pull someone out of a ditch because they weren’t wearing a seatbelt. I’ve seen too many people killed because they weren’t wearing a seatbelt, but I’ve never seen anyone who died because they were wearing one.”

The compliance rate in Barrhead for wearing a seatbelt is lower than the provincial average, Dodds said. Where upwards of 90 per cent of Albertans abide by the law, only about 75 per cent of drivers or their passengers in Barrhead buckle up. Dodds said he isn’t really sure why that is, but he thinks it has to do with demographics and complacency.

“Everyone gets complacent,” he said. “In a small town like Barrhead, most people don’t even lock their doors for the same reason they don’t buckle up. We see too many people driving in town who aren’t wearing seatbelts.”

Too many residents think that nothing bad will happen to them, he said, but the fact is drivers don’t have to be travelling at highway speeds to be injured in a collision. As a warning, Dodds said tickets will increase for people caught without wearing their seatbelt. It’s an initiative taking place across the entire province. Furthermore, the RCMP is lobbying the province to change the impact of seatbelt infractions to include demerit points.

The RCMP is asking motorists to keep in mind the following before they head out onto Alberta highways:

• In Alberta, mandatory seatbelt compliance is the law.

• Vehicles are designed with an engineered life space, which can withstand the force of most impacts. Seatbelts keep occupants in this space where they are the safest.