Extra Seat Belt Enforcement Hits Minnesota Roads

Click it or Ticket campaign will run through June 4

MINNESOTA – Extra enforcement for more than 300 agencies will hit Minnesota roads today for the Click It or Ticket campaign run by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Office of Traffic Safety.

Agencies will conduct extra seat belt violation enforcement, which will run for two weeks throughout the entire state.

Minnesota law states that drivers and all passengers must be buckled up or seated in the correct child restraint. The law requires children to be in a child restraint or booster seat until age 8 and 4 feet 9 inches tall – until this point children cannot ride in a seat belt alone. Recommendations are based on height over age.

Minnesota Child Car Seat Steps

• Rear-facing child seats – Newborns to at least 1 year and 20 pounds and recommended up to age 2. It is safest to keep a child rear-facing as long as possible.
• Forward-facing seats – Age 2 until around age 4. It’s preferable to keep children in a harnessed restraint until they reach the maximum weight limit
• Booster seats – Use after outgrowing a forward-facing harnessed restraint; safest to remain in a booster until 4 feet 9 inches tall, or at least age 8, whichever comes first.
• Seat belts – Use when children can sit with their back against the seat and have their knees bent comfortably over the edge with their feet touching the floor.

Extra enforcement is part of an effort to keep fatalities down on Minnesota roads. According to the DPS-OTS, over a five year period from 2011-15, 152 unbelted motorists died during the 100 deadliest days on Minnesota roads (Memorial Day to Labor Day).

Preliminary data from 2016 shows that 79 unbelted motorists died on Minnesota roads.