The Old Westbury Police Department will once again be participating in the Buckle Up New York (BUNY) campaign sponsored by the New York state Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee. BUNY Click It or Ticket, is a statewide, zero-tolerance enforcement effort to increase seat belt and child safety seat use. According to the New York state police website, 51 percent of the 22,187 passenger vehicle occupants who were killed in motor vehicle crashes nationwide were not wearing seat belts at the time of their crashes. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), seat belts saved more than 12,500 lives nationwide. With proper seat belt use, research shows that the risk of fatal injury to front seat passenger car occupants is reduced by 45 percent, and the risk of moderate to serious injury is reduced by 50 percent.
Safety check points will be deployed throughout Old Westbury to enforce this policy, which will be in effect from May 23 through June 5.
Under New York state law, seat belts must be worn by all front seat occupants regardless of age and by all children under the age of 16. All children under 4 years old must be restrained in a federally approved child safety seat and children ages 4 to 8 must be properly restrained in an appropriate child restraint system.
Funding for this enforcement has been made possible through Nassau County Traffic Safety from a grant provided by the state Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee.
