Freehold Twp, Boro Receives Funding To Enforce Seatbelt Crackdown

FREEHOLD, NJ – If you're driving in New Jersey, you better "click-it" or you'll pay for a ticket. And if you're in Monmouth County, you'll have to be especially careful in several towns, including Freehold Township and Freehold Borough.

From May 24 to June 6, state, county and local police departments throughout New Jersey will join law enforcement agencies across the country in "Click It or Ticket," a national enforcement campaign targeting unbuckled drivers and passengers.

To enhance law enforcement efforts during the Click It or Ticket campaign, the division is providing a total of $810,120 in grant funding to 134 agencies throughout the state. The money helps agencies pay for additional officers on the road, high-visibility seat belt checkpoints and other enforcement initiatives during the campaign. All police departments in New Jersey are invited to support the campaign, whether they receive grant funding or not. Both Freehold Township and Freehold Borough received $6,000 each to further enforce the safety measures.

Here’s what other Monmouth County municipalities received:

• Asbury Park $6,000
• Manalapan $6,000
• Marlboro $6,000
• Middletown $6,000

To kick off this year's campaign, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania will join forces for a one-day "Border to Border" ("B2B") event on Monday featuring highly visible seat belt enforcement for drivers at state border checkpoints.

"Seat belts have been proven to be one of the best ways to prevent death and serious injury in a crash. Yet statistics show that many people still don't buckle up," said New Jersey Attorey General Gurbir Grewal in a statement. "The Click It or Ticket enforcement campaign is aimed at educating the public on the importance of abiding by seat belt laws. It could literally save your life."

In 2019, nearly half (47 percent) of the 22,215 passenger-vehicle occupants killed in crashes nationwide were not wearing seat belts, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In New Jersey that year, 42 percent – 108 of the 260 – passenger-vehicle occupants who were killed were unrestrained, NHTSA reports. In passenger vehicle fatalities occurring at night (6 p.m. – 5:59 a.m.), the percentage of those killed and not wearing seat belts jumps to 55 percent.

Across the campaign, law enforcement agencies will be taking a "no-excuses" approach to seat belt enforcement, writing citations throughout the day and with a particular focus on nighttime enforcement. In New Jersey, the maximum penalty for a seat belt violation is $46.

"Wearing a seatbelt reduces the risk of fatal injury by 45 percent and critical injury by 50 percent," said Eric Heitmann, director of the Division of Highway Traffic Safety. "By working together to enforce New Jersey's seat belt laws during the Click It or Ticket campaign, participating law enforcement agencies are promoting safe habits that will help reach our goal of zero fatalities on New Jersey roadways. If enforcement wakes people up to the dangers of unrestrained driving, we'll consider our mission to be a success."

The Click It or Ticket campaign was not held in New Jersey last year due to concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the most recent campaign in 2019, which ran from April 1 through April 21, 2019, 341 police agencies – or 70 percent of all agencies statewide – participated in the enforcement effort. In addition to issuing a total 14,548 seat belt citations, those agencies wrote 5,670 speeding citations and made 858 impaired driving arrests.

With reporting by Tom Davis.