REDCLIFF, AB — Mounties across Alberta are making sure everyone is buckled up and safe while inside a vehicle.
S/Sgt. Sean Maxwell with the Redcliff Detachment said officers are out, looking to see if drivers are wearing their seat belts and that they’re wearing it properly.
RCMP also want to make sure car seats have been properly installed.
Maxwell said statistics show you’re 50 per cent more likely to survive a collision if you’re wearing your seat belt.
He adds the compliance rate is high at 97 per cent. Most people do wear their seat belts, but he did write a ticket just before CHAT News spoke with him, earlier this afternoon.
He said people tend to make excuses and he’s heard just about everything.
“I was only going a short distance, I forgot, sometimes they just admit, ‘yeah, I wasn’t wearing my seat belt’ and they really don’t say a lot cause they’re embarrassed,” he said. “It ranges the gamete, sometimes I get arguments with people, too, where they’re telling me ‘no, I swear I was wearing it’.”
Drivers aren’t given any demerits for not wearing a seat belt, but officers will write anyone caught a $155 ticket.
