Bonneville County Sheriff: Seat Belt Infractions Up, Increased Patrols May Be Helping

It may be one of the most simple dangers behind the wheel: not wearing a seat belt.

The Bonneville County Sheriff’s office just finished an intensive two week saturation to get drivers educated about seat belt safety. Officers also compiled some numbers during the focused efforts and said seat belt infractions are up in Bonneville County.

It’s hard for Sgt. Jeff Edwards to forget one particular call from about 6 years ago.

“The driver fell asleep, went off the side of the road,” said Edwards.

That driver, didn’t have a seat belt on and was ejected from his vehicle. Edwards said the driver didn’t make it.

It’s that simple click the Bonneville County Sheriff is trying to encourage. The office did an intensive officer saturation from Dec. 7 to 20, 2011. They spotted 315 infractions.

From Feb. 7 to 20, 2012, they spotted 537 infractions. That’s up almost double.

Edwards hit the streets again on Wednesday for a ride-a-long with our station, and spotted a driver with a faulty brake light, who was also not wearing a seat belt. The broken brake light gave Edwards a reason to stop the driver. Seat belt infractions cannot be a first offense.

Once Edwards pulled the driver over, he found a child not wearing a seat belt in the backseat. The driver wasn’t wearing one either.

“The little guy in the back should really have a seat belt on,” said Edwards to the driver. “You should too.”

The driver gets a ticket, and Edwards hopes, an education.

“I think a lot of it’s just the fact they’re only going a short distance so they don’t worry about it,” said Edwards. “They’re not on the highway doing 75 miles an hour.”

He says seat belts are a requirement no matter where a driver is driving.

Edwards said during observational surveys before the saturation, they saw 69 percent of drivers using seat belts.

Afterward, almost 76 percent of drivers seem to be belted.