Warwickshire Road Safety Partnership announces results of Seatbelt campaign

Warwickshire Road Safety Partnership has announced the results of a campaign that took place from 6-26 June to urge all drivers and passengers to always wear a seatbelt. 

During the National Police Chief Council led campaign Warwickshire Police stopped a total of 194 vehicles where either the driver or a passenger was not wearing a seatbelt.   This included 82 cars (42.3%) 65 van drivers (33.5%) and 47 HGV’s (24.2%).

As a result 192 seat belt offences were identified. During the enforcement activities, 174 drivers and 17 passengers were stopped by officers for not wearing a seatbelt.  One driver had also committed a child restraint offence.

87% of those not wearing seat belts were male and 88% of those not wearing a seat belt were over 25 years old. 

Sergeant Bridle said “Most drivers understand that wearing a seat belt is really important because in a collision, you’re twice as likely to die if you don’t wear a seat belt.  It’s one of the top 4 contributory factors to death and injury on our roads alongside drink and drug driving, mobile phones and speeding. 

“The excuses given to our officers include "sorry I forgot " and overall those not wearing a seatbelt seem to be simply lazy or display a lack of concern.  This drives us to do more seatbelt enforcement operations over the coming months to help educate drivers that wearing a seatbelt could save their lives. 

Philip Seccombe, Police and Crime Commissioner for Warwickshire and Chair of WRSP said “We need drivers and passengers to take responsibility for their own safety on the roads by always wearing a seatbelt.  We are also asking families and partners to ensure their loved ones always belt up.  Please tell them it is important to you that they stay safe.

“We are looking at all aspects of road safety but we need the public to play their part to help us reduce death and serious injury on our roads by 50% by 2030.” 

To help get this point across, during the campaign information and daily facts were shared on social media about seatbelts and how to travel children safely.

Free child car seat checks were offered to parents, grandparents and those responsible for safely transporting children and young people at Elliots Field in Rugby on Friday 17 June by Warwickshire Police staff trained to nationally accredited standards.

Getting your child car seat checked is really important too because checks conducted by Warwickshire Police in November 2021 found that 69% of child car seats were not correctly fitted.

During the campaign 20 child car seats were checked and 10 were fitted correctly and no adjustments were needed.

But during the checks, one child car seat came out in the PCSO’s hands as she was checking it as it was not fitted correctly at all.  The parent was very thankful for potentially saving her child’s life.

Other issues found ranged from loose items on the back seat including a booster seat not belted in when the child was not in the seat.  Booster seats should be belted at all times and loose items put in the boot as these could all fly into other children or passengers causing injuries.

Some belts and harnesses were too loose and some children were out of rear facing seats too early as parents felt that they didn’t want their child to have crossed legs, head rests holding the seats down and advice was given around seatbelt v harness in relation to the child’s age and size.

More child car seat checks are planned and these will be promoted in local media and on social media.  Please follow us on Facebook @WarwickshireRoadSafety and Twitter @WarksRoadSafety for road safety information and advice.