ROADPOL Gets 50.000

With No Seat Belt

15 MAY - More than 50.000 people were found wearing no seat belt while in a moving vehicle during the latest pan-European ROADPOL Seat Belt Operation.

The concentrated enforcement campaign was carried out for a week in April with 18 European road police forces performing active roadside checks. The focus was also at child restraints and wearing of helmets.

Results

During the operation Seatbelt, more than 1.000.000 vehicles were checked. A number of 50.974 violations were detected by police officers. This number of violations can be divided in persons in the front seats of the car (48.204) and in the back of the car (2.770). Another way to look at the numbers is adults (49.388) or children (1586) not using the seatbelt or safety restraints.

Henk JansenImportance

“These numbers clearly show how important road safety and seatbelt controls are, because still too many drivers and passengers were not ‘buckled up”, ROADPOL Operational Working Group Secretary Henk P. Jansen of Dutch Police commented. “The seat belts have two functions: they ensure that you stay in your car seat, so that you are not thrown out of the car and are not disoriented when the car hits water, for example, and the seat belts prevent you from smashing the steering wheel, dashboard, front seats or windshield in event of a collision. Airbags supplement this safety. However, airbags only work optimally if you stay in your seat in a collision. So Yes, wearing the seat belts is important”, Jansen explained.

Lives

“Seat belts save lives and the severity of the consequences of an accident often depends on whether or not a safety belt has been worn. Still, too many motorists do not strap on. And this is of absolute importance, because seat belts reduce the risk of fatal injury by 37 to 48%, depending on the position in the car. The effect of child restraints is slightly higher at 50%”, Jansen added.

Policing

As part of “road policing”, the Police also looked at other forms of crime during the seat belt checks. This resulted in 1055 cases of drugs findings and 15 cases of firearms being found in a controlled car. Also 98 Police "‘wanted" persons were caught.