Reading Police Participating in Click It or Ticket

Reading, MA - The Reading Police Department is taking part in the national Click It or Ticket campaign to promote seat belt use through increased traffic enforcement.

The initiative is funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and runs from May 9-23.

"This new campaign is essential as we head into the summer months," Police Chief Mark Segalla said. "It's a busy driving season, and we want our community taking every precaution possible. We will be ticketing drivers who are not wearing their seat belts, as well as those who have not properly buckled up children in the car.”

According to the NHTSA, the national seat belt usage rate is currently 88.5 percent, with Massachusetts falling behind at 74 percent -- a three percent drop in use from 2014 to 2015. Additionally, in 2014, nearly half of the 21,022 passenger vehicle occupants who were killed in crashes across the nation were not buckled.

“While these may just sound like statistics, local police know from personal experience that those numbers represent mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and friends in North Reading,” Jeff Larason, Director of the Highway Safety Division, said in a statement. “If we increase our seat belt usage rate, we save lives, and that’s why the police are out enforcing this important law.”

Reading will join more than 200 municipal police departments and the Massachusetts State Police, in partnership with the Highway Safety Division of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, that are partaking in the campaign.

Anyone who has questions or concerns about this campaign, or how to properly buckle a child, should contact the Reading Police Department at 781-942-6774 .