By: Astrid Galvan
Gilbert, Ariz. — Gilbert Police issued 23 seatbelt violation citations during a four-day enforcement detail targeting teens at various Gilbert high schools.
The detail was part of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Click It or Ticket campaign, that runs May 19 -June 1.
Thursday was the last day of school for Gilbert Public Schools. The seatbelt detail also led to 83 total speeding citations and nine arrests.
Gilbert Police spokesman Sgt. Mark Marino said a recent bout of serious injury accidents led the department to work the streets around Higley, Mesquite, Gilbert, Williams Field and Highland high schools.
He said teenagers don’t have much experience driving and tend to be in more accidents.
“We are doing everything we can to reduce those numbers,” Marino said.
Steve Imhoff, owner of N Control Driving School in Gilbert, said the reason why teens don’t wear seatbelts often is because they feel “it’s not cool.”
He said girls are most likely to wear seatbelts the wrong way, under their shoulders, to avoid the belt brushing up against the skin.
Sixty-eight percent of teens between 16 and 20 who were killed in vehicle accidents in 2006 were not wearing seatbelts, according to the national highway administration.
Seatbelt usage becomes much lower at nighttime, according to the organization.
In Gilbert, accidents like the one in April that claimed the life of Dylan Beaver, a 14-year-old from Williams Field High, leave communities stunned.
Beaver was not wearing a seatbelt when the vehicle his older brother was driving rolled over and hit a concrete fence, ejecting him from the vehicle and killing him on scene.
Copyright 2008 The Arizona Republic