From Maryland State Police:
As motorists take to the roads this Memorial Day holiday, Maryland State Police are urging everyone to buckle up. Beginning May 20, 2013, State Troopers from the J.F.K. Highway Barrack, Bel Air Barrack, North East Barrack and local law enforcement officials will be out in full force, taking part in the 2013 national Click It or Ticket seat belt enforcement mobilization and cracking down on motorists who are not belted.
“As we kick-off the busy summer driving season it’s important that everyone buckles up every time they go out, both day and night. Click It or Ticket activities will take place around the clock. If law enforcement finds you on the road unbuckled anytime or anywhere, you can expect to get a ticket — not a warning. No excuses and no exceptions.” said Lieutenant Dan Fairburn – Commander of J.F.K. Barrack.
The Maryland State Police will also be partaking in local events stressing the importance of seat belt usage not only in adults but proper child safety seat installation. Nationally certified Troopers will be conducting child safety seat installations and checks to help educate parents or expecting parents in the importance of proper installation. Troopers will also have on hand a Seat Belt Convincer tool which allows participants to experience force, up to five times their body weight, similar to that of a 5-7 mph crash. Troopers and local law enforcement will be on hand to answer questions and allow children to meet their local law enforcement officials and K-9 partners. Events are tentatively scheduled as follows:
May 21: Chick-Fil-A – Nottingham: 5198 Campbell Blvd, Nottingham 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
May 22: Chesapeake House Rest Area: Interstate 95 at Mile Marker 96.5, North East. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
May 23: Chick-Fil-A – Elkton : 1100 East Pulaski Hwy, Elkton. 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
May 28: Chick-Fil-A – Abingdon: 408 Constant Friendship Blvd, Abingdon. 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
May 29: Chesapeake House Rest Area: Interstate 95 at Mile Marker 96.5, North East. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
In 2011, seat belts saved an estimated 11,949 lives nationwide according to NHTSA. While this year’s Click It or Ticket enforcement mobilization runs from May 20 through June 2, officers are out enforcing seat belt laws year-round.
A briefing is scheduled at the Maryland State Police J.F.K. Highway Barrack on Monday, May 20, 2013 at 8 a.m. Media personnel are welcome to attend. If you would like to ride along with a Trooper and experience their enforcement initiative, please email Corporal Novack for further details.
For more on the national Click It or Ticket mobilization, please visit www.nhtsa.gov.
Wearing seatbelts is a great idea. Allowing law enfocement to pull you over for nothing other than a “seatbelt violation” is not.
Will these Troopers answer why they can drive 20 mph faster than the flow of traffic on I-95 when obviously not in pursuit of anyone nor responding to an emergency? Will they tell us why they do not have to follow the laws that they are so happy to enforce?
Will they tell us about the special classes that they must have taken on driving while distracted if it is such a safety hazard when we do it but they have no problem talking on the phone or operating a computer while driving?
First, how are you able to say that they are not responding to something? Not every response requires the use of lights and sirens.
Second, yes…they do get special training on every area that you mentioned. Even more so, the “cell phone law” specifically excludes emergency personnel.
Nice try though!
I can answer that question. 1) Speeders approaching the rear of a marked patrol car will instinctively slow down until the car is out of sight. If travelling the marked speed limit, a patrolling officer will only catch up to those travelling below the speed limit as this is simple mathematics, therefore the only way to approach a speeder from the rear and issue them a citation is to be travelling faster than them coming from behind them. 2) Although not in active pursuit and responding to an emergency, officers are often responding to a call where a citizen would still prefer the officer be there sooner rather than later but does not warrant running code.
And this explains why police have the highest incidents of causing traffic accidents of any profession. Dateline did a great expose on it recently showing, from police dash board cams, cops running red lights and stop signs (not realizing the light was red because they are distracted), rear ending people’s cars, hitting curbs, speeding while not on calls, on and on.
Because you feel you are above all traffic laws, you people are flat out dangerous to law abiding drivers on the road.
Forgot to add, one outcome to the cop driving mayhem is that many reputable police departments have implemented safeguards in the patrol cars that PC’s, cell phones for texting, etc. will not work when the car is in motion more than 3 mph. Obviously, these department care about the people they are supposed to be protecting. Plus, I am sure they are tired of paying out all of the law suits for the negligence.
I am sure…yes, lawsuits and not officer safety. Yes, that must be it.
You have all the answers. Well, until you misrepresented the data from another news source (DateLine) and tried to pass it as if it applies everywhere.
Not enough, but you should run for public office since you are so smart.
Actually, I have studied traffic safety in a prior life. It is very complex. What I find offensive and hypocritical is that a government body will pass legislation keeping drivers from doing (fill in the blank), yet they exclude police officers from the law. If it is that dangerous, shouldn’t it apply to everyone? The very noble idea is to prevent as many accidents as possible. So how deep is that sand anyway?
So we need them to SPEED to catch the SPEEDers because SPEEDing is dangerous??? How about the one I saw SPEEDing past a SPEED trap on 95? Was that a plan to catch the extra-special speeders that the speed trap wouldn’t catch?
On top of that, why is it that it’s okay for them to be on the phone while speeding? You think I’m crazy, just start from this day forward checking out every cop you see on the road. I have called their offices on numerous occasions to report this activity – you or I can be ticketed for this behavior. Enough is enough – one law, one standard. Tailgating, rolling stops, cell phones while driving and speeding virtually everywhere they go – none of us would have a license if we drove like the privileged.
Well, you could have gone to the police academy if you wanted to do all this cool stuff.
Hell, since it appears you know everything better, just come on down and suit up – you are obviously smarter than all of the police officers anyway.
Since you are so smart, I am sure that you know the cell-phone law explicitly states that it DOES NOT apply to emergency personnel (does this mean you are going to call the Emergency Room and try to tattle tale on the Ambulance driver talking on his phone?)
You are a grown up, stop trying to do everyone else’s job, and quit trying to be Mr. BusyBody neighborhood know it all.
I have 8 – yes eight airbags in my car. Along with anti-lock brakes with crash avoidance technology, navigation and a rear back-up camera.
Please tell me why again it is that I am required to wear a seatbelt in my car that I pay taxes, insurance, gas, maintenance and registration costs for?
Because your airbags will not do squat if you are not buckled. Enjoy eating your steering wheel with your face or chest when you are traveling down the highway and get into a collision at 55mph.
That is his right! You cannot make him wear that seat belt!
If that is the case, then they cannot make us scrape dead bodies off the road because they were douchebags as well.
Love how you guys bash the police about everything, but when your being violated or to much of a b###h to handle your own problems. Who do you call? Who do you people call to raise your kids cause youfailed as a parent? How bout when your spouse beats you up. Go get a real job and make a difference in this world. Love keyboard tough guys, fake a$$e$.
Remember folks, the cops are only doing what the governor and general ASSembly have ordered them to do. If we keep putting these same idiots back in office we’re going to get more great laws like that are already on the books: 9% tax on a bottle of beer, windmills 20 miles out in the ocean, , free stuff for non citizens (which the citizens pay for), rain tax, scooter tags, mandatory bicycle helmets, etc. And soon to come: calorie tax, 8 oz soda tax, mandatory walking and driving helmets, tax on the county piggyback tax, ice cream tax, overweight person tax. Well you get the idea.
Don’t forget the oxygen tax… the only reason O’Malley hasn’t pushed that one through is that he hasn’t figured out a way to calculate it yet.
O’Malley and the GA have yet to meet a tax or fee that they didn’t want to increase or just create out of thin air.
He doesn’t have to calculate it – look at his bogus rain tax…I’m claiming a local drought…I’ve run out of money to pay these bozos!
Crosswalk tax, hey man, money to repaint those white lines in the road has to come from somewhere.
All you who don’t want to wear it…don’t. You want to speed … speed. You want to drink and drive… drink and drive. Roll the dice and contribute to the state funds. Whether you agree with them or not…these are all still laws
It’s not specifically about the seatbelt ticket law specific, it’s about the daily and continuing increase of governmental intrusion on our daily lives.
Also, please recall when the seatbelt law was passed years ago–it wasn’t going to be considered a first offense that you could be pulled over. Now it is,, once that camel gets his nose under the tent under the guise of safety, security and “for the children” WATCH OUT!!!!
The police must have super human vision, to be able to scan all those drivers while zipping 20 mph faster than the rest of us. All that and still being able to pay attention to what is going on in front of them while talking on their cellphone, just incredible. They do what they do because they can, not because its right.
I would expect police to have a high incident of auto accidents. There are very few professions where you are expected to cross intersections through a red light to respond to a robbery in progress. During a home invasion, the police are expected to get across the county before that person can get from the point of entry to the second floor of the home. If you want to stand on statistics, get all of the statistics…number of man hours spent in a vehicle, miles travelled annually, etc. vs. resulting accidents. I wouldn’t expect a telemarketer, waitress, cashier, and on and on and on to have many employment traffic accident statistics due to not being inside of a car while on the job. I am certainly not defending officers that socialize or text on their phones, I don’t agree with it and that unfortunately goes across the board – people are not obeying that law in any profession anywhere in the state. This applies to all laws though: The law says what the law says, officers are like computers in a lot of ways, if you put in bad info (the law) you get bad output (enforcement of a poorly written law).
Oh my friend you missed the whole point, these accidents by cops are not while responding to calls, this is just normal everyday driving. I didn’t say they were the worst group of drivers, major transportation research and engineering groups did. The research demonstrates that if they actually followed the laws they are supposed to enforce, that accidents while decrease dramatically. In many states, they have enacted regulations in local departments that require the officers, when not responding to a real call, to follow all traffic laws. In the one city in Ohio (sorry I don’t remember which one from the report), when they forced officers to obey traffic laws and wired the electronics in the patrol cars not to work when the car is in motion more than 3 mph, accidents were reduced by 80% the first year. Still don’t think it is a problem, watch this report:
http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/49893310#49893310
Yes, because media reports are so completely honest these days. This was not a national study, and was not endorsed by any major group.
Your comments suggest that every cop is a crappy driver with multiple accidents from inattentive driving.
Leads me to be believe that, since you keep harping on this one report, you are totally clueless and a classic example of the current “Google PhD” society.
And you remind me of a bad cop trying to justify bad behavior. Try Texas Transportation Safety Institute and NHTSA just to name a couple. Need something local, number one violator of school speed cameras in Montgomery County —police officers. Funny thing was school buses were not far behind them…look it up.
How about enforcing the law of no trucks in the left 2 lanes of 95? They impede my unbuckled, texting, drinking, speeding ass every day going back and forth to work?