BOOZE and BELTS MOBILIZATION

NEWS RELEASE

Chippewa Falls Police Department

12/01/09

For immediate release

Contact: Lt. Mark Hanson 723-4424 (after 3pm) mahanson@chippewafalls-wi.gov

Chippewa Falls PD to join Booze & Belts traffic safety effort

In an effort to keep the joyous holiday season from becoming a time of tragedy, Chippewa Falls Police will be participating in the statewide “Booze and Belts” traffic crash prevention effort from Dec. 7 to 15.

“During the Booze and Belts mobilization, our officers will be out to prevent needless traffic deaths and injuries by arresting drunken drivers and enforcing the mandatory safety belt law,” said Lt. Mark Hanson

Law enforcement officers throughout the state are stringently cracking down on motorists who irresponsibly choose to ignore safety belt and impaired driving laws. Last year in Wisconsin, there were more than 41,000 drunken driving convictions and nearly 70,000 convictions for failure to fasten safety belts.  With Wisconsin’s new primary enforcement law, officers may stop and ticket drivers and passengers who are not wearing safety belts even if the officers do not observe another violation, according to Lt. Hanson.

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“During this mobilization and throughout the year, our goal is to save lives and prevent injuries, not to write more seatbelt tickets or make more drunken driving arrests. It is our sincere hope that people will voluntarily buckle up and drive sober. If they don’t, our intensified enforcement will increase the risks of getting caught,” Hanson said.  “Wisconsin stands to end the year with the lowest number of traffic fatalities since the 1940s. But we will continue our traffic safety enforcement, like the Booze and Belts mobilization, until we attain our ultimate goal of zero preventable traffic deaths in Wisconsin. And it will require an effort on everyone’s part. We challenge the motoring public to give us nothing to do!”

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