AURORA | Police around the state issued more than 8,000 tickets for seat belt violations during a two-week crackdown that ended June 5, the Colorado Department of Transportation said Thursday.
In Aurora, police issued 507 citations.
Some municipalities issued warnings during the crackdown — a total of 222 statewide —but Aurora, like most of the larger departments, didn’t issue a single warning.
The crackdown was part of a national effort aimed at increasing seat belt usage and during the two-week period, 11 drivers and passengers died in crashes in Colorado. Nine of them were not wearing seat belts.
“Writing tickets for not buckling up is something we don’t like to do, but we know it’s necessary to remind some people that it’s a law that could save their life,” Col. James Wolfinbarger, Chief of the Colorado State Patrol, said in a statement.
Out of the 8,105 citations issued statewide, 519 were for unrestrained children, 397 for teens and 7,189 for unbuckled adults. The minimum fine for not wearing a seat belt in Colorado is $65. A citation for unrestrained children is $82 per violation.
Agencies arrested 41 fugitives, 139 people on DUI charges and 42 on drug charges during the crackdown.
Since Click It or Ticket started in 2002, seat belt use in Colorado has increased from 72 percent to 82.0 percent, CDOT said.
The number of people killed in traffic crashes while not wearing their seat belts also fell 56 percent, CDOT said, dropping from 380 in 2002 and 166 in 2010.
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