March is Occupant Restraints Month and RCMP spent Monday looking for motorists who failed to buckle up while out on the road.
“Already this year in January and February, we’ve charged 51 drivers for failing to wear their seat belt,” said Cpl. Dal Hutchinson, RCMP.
“Last year and the year before, we had over 350 drivers and occupants that received tickets as a result of failing to buckle up when they get into the vehicle.”
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The seatbelt law has been in effect in Nova Scotia since 1985 but police say some people still aren’t following the rules of the road.
“For whatever reasons, there are still those motorists that choose not to buckle up when they get into their vehicle,” said Hutchinson.
“It should be a habit, as soon as you get in, you put your seatbelt on, step on the brake and start your car and drive away if it’s safe to do so. But for whatever reasons, there’s still those motorists and occupants of vehicles that choose not to buckle up.”
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Far too often, RCMP say people are injured or killed because they didn’t use a seatbelt.
“Being a first responder, we see too much of it and it’s preventable. All you have to do is buckle up and hear a click and drive away,” said Hutchinson.
“A lot of people think, ‘we’ll I’m just driving to the store, I’m just going a few feet down the road, I’m not going to get hurt’ but you know what, it doesn’t matter what speed you’re travelling at, whether you’re travelling at a high rate of speed or a low rate of speed, you still can be injured or worse you can be killed.”
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Improper seatbelt use is an issue for police across the country and one of the four main causes of fatal collisions.
“There’s four causal factors,” said Hutchinson. “One of them is speed, one of them is failing to buckle up, driver distraction is another one and impairment by drugs and alcohol. So those are the four things that we are always targeting when we’re out on patrol.”