FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Honolulu police officers relaunched the "Click It or Ticket" seat belt campaign yesterday. Officers Mel Andres, left, and Pearl Lung wrote tickets for seat belt violators at this checkpoint at Beretania and Isenberg streets.

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Seat belts leave
some clicked off

But HPD officers say
the "Click It or Ticket"
program saves lives

Anger. Denial. Resignation.

Those were some drivers' reactions to being cited for not properly wearing a seat belt yesterday, as local police and the state Department of Transportation launched the nationwide "Click It or Ticket" seat belt enforcement campaign in Hawaii, which ranks second in the nation in seat belt use.

While most motorists were irate or dejected, Rick Cardoza smiled when asked about getting ticketed despite his efforts to pull his seat belt on at South Beretania and Isenberg streets.

"If it works, great," he said. "I won't do it again."

Cardoza said he went to a hardware store and forgot to put his seat belt on. "I think it's a good law," he said.

Administrative Sgt. Robert Lung of the Honolulu Police Department's Traffic Division said: "We don't want to condition them to put it (seat belt) on when they see police officers. We want them to make it part of driving."

He stressed that it's all about saving the lives of that 5 percent of Hawaii's 700,000 drivers who continually drive without seat belts. Arizona ranks first in seat belt use at 95.3 percent, with Hawaii second at 95.1 percent. But that's not enough for police.

"What we're finding is out of all automobile fatalities, we'll have about 50 percent not wearing seat belts," Lung said. Persons not buckled up are often ejected from vehicles or slam into the steering column, he said.

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Officer Mel Andres issued a ticket for a seat-belt violator at a "Click It or Ticket" checkpoint yesterday at the intersection of Beretania and Isenberg streets. Hawaii's seat-belt use has jumped 15 percent in five years because of the campaign, the state said.

And during this campaign, police are taking an even closer look at pickup drivers because they have a higher percentage of rollovers.

Jane Syah fumed in her pickup, insisting she just pulled out of a parking space (a block away) and was putting her seat belt on when she got ticketed.

"I had my seat belt on," she said. "They really pick on you."

Syah is convinced police are just trying to meet their quotas and that it's just the state's way of bringing in revenues.

Despite wearing a lap seat belt, 83-year-old Kapahulu resident Emilio Saniel and his 82-year-old wife, Mary, were cited on their way to the supermarket on Beretania.

Both didn't know how to use the shoulder belts in the 1973 Datsun 280Z Saniel got from his brother.

The $184 in fines is a lot of money for the Saniels. "We retirees, we don't spend much, but when you're not working it's a lot," Mary Saniel said.

A common misconception among drivers is that it's legal to wear the shoulder belt under the arm. That also warrants a citation.

In a crash where there is enough pressure, the seat belt can break the ribs and sternum, which protects the heart, Lung said.

Hawaii's seat belt use has jumped from 80 percent to 95 percent over the last five years, "thanks to the 'Click It or Ticket' campaign," state Transportation Director Rod Haraga said.