Extra Police On The Roads To Kick Off 'Click It or Ticket'
BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP (WWJ) - If you're not buckled up Monday morning near Telegraph and Quarton - the chances are, you WILL get a ticket. The annual "Click It or Ticket" campaign is underway and extra patrols will be out from over 200 different police departments across Michigan looking for drivers who aren't buckled up.
Bloomfield Township Police Chief Kirt Bowden says it's not about writing tickets, it's about preventing injuries to everyone in the car during a crash. "You think about, let's say, a 250-pound man and the passenger to his right might be his wife who might weigh 110 pounds, and if he doesn't fasten in and they happen to get hit by the side that 250 pounds of mass is going to go over and injure the 110-pound wife along with the husband," says Bowden.
And he says the real aim of the "Click It or Ticket" campaign is to prevent one of the worst parts of his job, which is going to the scene of a fatal crash. "I've gone to fatal accidents where they have had it fastened, but the majority of the time the accidents that I've gone to in my career that seatbelt has not been fastened and for many of them a life didn't have to be lost," says Bowden, who adds, "Even worse than that is the officer that has to go to the house to make the death notice to the family, probably one of the worst calls you can go on."
Bowden says the extra patrols will be out at the intersection of Telegraph and Quarton between 7am and 11. And as for those who want to take a chance and not buckle up, Bowden says, "I'd hate to play those odds. With officers out there watching, I'd say the odds are very good you're going to get caught. It'd be pretty hard to slip through." However, he says it would make his day if police couldn't find anyone not wearing a seatbelt.
The "Click It or Ticket" campaign runs through June 5th.
