HPD issues 2,192 tickets
in seat-belt crackdown

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By Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.com

Honolulu police issued 2,135 citations to Oahu motorists for not wearing their seat belts and 57 for not placing children in child safety restraints in the two weeks of the nationwide "Click It or Ticket" campaign.

The campaign ran from May 20 to yesterday. However, Honolulu police ended their seat-belt checkpoints Sunday.

Neighbor island police departments were scheduled to report the number of citations they issued during the campaign to the state Department of Transportation today.

They started their checkpoints a week earlier and intend to continue them beyond the official campaign period.

Honolulu police also issued 125 other citations, 227 moving violations and made 16 arrests at the seat-belt checkpoints.

The federal government, through the state Transportation Department, conducted a survey Saturday through Wednesday to determine what effect the campaign had on Hawaii motorists. The results will be announced in July.

"Hopefully, as the week went on, people caught on to the fact that if you saw a bunch of police officers standing by an intersection that you already have been buckled up," said Maj. Robert Prasser, Honolulu Police Department Traffic Division.

The state's compliance rate was 83.5 percent in the last survey, conducted earlier this year.

Hawaii's four county police departments split a federal grant to pay for additional expenses, like overtime, to conduct the campaign.

Prasser said HPD had not spent all of its share and promises more seat-belt checkpoints before the end of summer.