Evanston police launched a two-week campaign today to encourage drivers to use safety belts.

The department has received a state grant to run a series of traffic enforcement campaigns this year, so they’ll have extra officers on duty to issue tickets to drivers they spot not using seat belts, child safety seats and booster seats. They’ll also be looking for speeders and drunk drivers.

Commander Tom Guenther says the ticketing campaign offers the greatest potential for changing public attitudes about use of occupant restraint safety devices.

Bill Smith is the editor and publisher of Evanston Now.

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3 Comments

  3. Police Traffic Enforcement
    Monday night I saw a police traffic enforcement line outside the Dominicks on Greenbay. Given the stories about seat-belts I assume that was what it was for.
    It seems a waste of time and resources to have signs and a very visible police presence and a ‘waiting to be checked’ line for seat belts—they have plenty of time to buckley-up. A year or so they had a seat-belt check at B-K but an officer [maybe in plain clothing] on Orrington before the stop sign and before the drivers could see the police line around the courner, seemed to be a much better way.
    Unless the inspection on Greenbay was more inclusive—check valid drivers license, insurance, etc., it would be about as effective as having a uniform policeman at a given location—criminals would just go elsewhere. In this case the line would have alterted drivers to turn on Isabella if they were doing something wrong.

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