The St. Charles Police Department is continuing its support of the Illinois Department of Transportation’s sustained traffic enforcement program (STEP) for fiscal 2013 and reminds motorists to fasten their seat belts over the Christmas an New Year’s holiday period or run the risk of receiving a ticket.

The objective of the STEP program is to reduce the incidence of motor vehicle crashes and the resulting injuries and fatalities, through increased highly visible enforcement of occupant restraint, impaired driving, speed and pedestrian safety during national and state enforcement campaigns.

Commencing Dec. 17 through Jan. 1, St. Charles police officers will be out in force conducting DUI and seat belt enforcement in conjunction with the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Sustained Traffic Enforcement Program apply named Click It or Ticket/Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.

In Illinois, during the 2011 Christmas & New Year’s Holiday period, 22 vehicle occupants died in motor vehicle traffic crashes with 8 of those deaths involved a drinking driver; in addition over 1,000 individuals were injured. In St. Charles officers made zero DUI arrests and 31 citations for other traffic violations.

Fastening a seat belt takes only a second or two, and costs you nothing. Not wearing a seat belt, especially during this Christmas and New Year’s period, will definitely cost you a ticket at the very least, or even worse, your life.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), seat belt use is the single most effective way to protect people and reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes. The goals of the STEP Program are to reduce the number of severe injury and fatal traffic crashes, to achieve a higher use of safety belts, child safety seats and booster seats and to achieve a lower incidence of impaired driving involved injuries and fatalities.

Research has shown that when lap and shoulder belts are used properly, the risk of fatal injury to front seat passenger car occupants is reduced by 45 percent, and the risk of moderate to serious injury is reduced by 50 percent.

The St. Charles Police Department wants all drivers to Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over and all vehicle occupants to Click It or Ticket ALL DAY and ALL NIGHT. For more information about the Click It or Ticket and the Drive Sober Get Pulled Over programs, please visit www.buckleupillinois.org.

SOURCE: St. Charles Police Department