Maine's police departments are delivering a message to drivers and passengers over the next two weeks: Click it or ticket.
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According to a press release from the Maine Department of Public Safety, police agencies from around the state are participating in a national campaign to increase seat belt usage as the summer driving season begins.
Departments have been given $545,272 from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to fund the seat belt enforcement effort, as well as overtime to increase police patrols looking for drunk drivers, speeders and aggressive drivers.
Sixty-six police departments, 11 sheriffs' offices and the State Police will be participating in the campaign, according to Lauren Stewart, the director of the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety.
The Farmington, Paris, Auburn, Dixfield, Lewiston, Auburn, Lisbon, Rumford, Richmond, Oxford, Wells, and Wilton Police Departments and the Androscoggin County Sheriff's Department were among the grant recipients, receiving funds between $2,000 and $10,000.
According to the press release, 159 people were killed on Maine roads last year, and 158 people were killed in 2008 -- the safest years on Maine roads since 1959. Stewart said there were 42 highway deaths so far this year, 2 less than there were at this time last year."
"The last two years have been the safest on Maine roads in the past 50 years," Stewart said. "Much of the credit goes to the state's police agencies for their continued efforts to make our roads safe. This year's federal funding of over a half million dollars will continue those enforcement efforts for the entire summer driving season."
In 2009, 58 percent of the people who died while in a passenger motor vehicle were not wearing seat belts, according to Michelle Ward, the highway safety coordinator and fatality analysis reporting systems analyst for the Bureau of Highway Safety. In 2008, that number was 52 percent.
These type of grants have been awarded to local police departments for several years, according to Stephen McCausland, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety. Since summer is the most heavily traveled months on Maine roads, much of that funding will be utilized in June, July and August, he said.
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Just another
Revenue raiser.
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how about beefing up enforcement of no street racing! that might actually be useful and protect lives!
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Just because there is grant money does not mean it has to be spent.
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It shouldn’t matter how many people die as a result, if the decision doesn’t put anyone else at risk, the government should have nothing to do with it.
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Excellent! Bravo. Well said. Thanks.
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I'm aware that it is the law- I meant to state that people could care less if it is the law or not and make the personal decision to buckle or not to buckle.
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Bad haircuts, bandannas, tattoos, and loud noises won't protect you...
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Okay a few things you guys are failing to see. One officers did not create this law, so if you don't like the idea of being forced to wear your seat belt take it up with the state legislature. Stop blamming officers for doing what they are suppose to be doing. Its kind of like "don't kill the messenger". Second this is a federal grant, not something that comes out of the police budget, so those stating the police budget needs to be cut should consider that even though an officer is on grant over time they are still on the street and able to respond to emergency calls if needed without coming out of the town budget. You can argue that its still tax dollars till you are blue in the face, fact is its not blaming our officers for this you need to place the blame where it belongs which is on our federal government for issuing these grants. Third and last the people who like to micro manage everything an officer does on shift, where their time is spent and how I offer this suggestion. Let me come to YOUR work, of which I probably have no experience in, and micro manage every detail of YOUR work day and tell you how to do YOUR job.....doesn't make much sense for me to act like your boss when I have little knowledge on the ins and outs of what you do now does it?
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No, the officers did not create the law, Erin. That is true. But are police officers human beings or robots that are programmed to "uphold the law". To the typical domestic marine, there is no difference between not wearing your seatbelt, driving to endanger, or throwing rocks at cars from a bridge. The marines are taught to NOT THINK. THEY, as individuals, need to THINK and reason, and not blindly go around "busting people" for offenses like these. So the feds gave us a grant, eh? How shameful. How maddening it is knowing that there's a police officer sitting in his cruiser down the road, watching people drive by, instead of watching the nasty apartment building across the street from my home (in a relatively nice, residential neighborhood) where they're obviously selling drugs. Idiots.
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Thats the point you missed. Lay off the low man on the totem poll for doing his job. If you don't like it change the law, get involved in government, make a difference. Don't sit behind a key board and bitch at those earning a pay check. Ever think cops pay taxes too?
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Erin, I agree with most of your post, but this grant is paid for by tax dollars. Just because a grant comes from a federal program doesn't mean it doesn't cost anything. Where do you think the money for this grant comes from? Tax dollars...
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FYI - 1st offense $70, 2nd offense $160, 3rd or more $310!!!
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Would he feel bad if while you were driving you got pulled over and given a ticket for him not wearing his seatbelt?
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Putting your seat belt on is a personal choice. I buckle every time I get into a vehicle, but my boyfriend on the other hand NEVER does. I'm always telling him to do so only because of safety. While I am driving, I notice people who are not buckled up all the time. I don't think it makes any difference if it is enforced by law or not because a large percent of people who don't buckle are never caught.
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Lewistonnative207, FYI putting your seat belt on isn't a personal choice, it's the law....
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Bingo. You said it, Lebearun. "It's the law!" "It's the law!" Did anyone ever stop to consider that maybe it's a STUPID GD LAW, passed by corrupt, ignorant ****** in the legislature. Do you really believe that a "Seatbelt LAW" is anything but another way to be harassed? I wear my seatbelt, I don't wear my seatbelt. Big deal. You people have NO IDEA how much this makes me angry. It's the symbolism of what this law represents. The FUZZ can stop you on the street, harass you, question you, look over your car and your belongings, judge you... maybe you left the house late and didn't wash your hair, just threw a hat on. Now you look like a stinkin' lowlife scumbag from the Dirty Lew, that will warrant you EXTRA attention by these robots who are trained to "UPHOLD THE LAW". This is not the America that I was taught is so great in my youth. When I was a kid, we were told how bad it was "on the other side of the iron curtain", how the commies made their citizens show papers to cross state borders, etc. Yet this is what we've become. Seatbelt checks. What shame we should all feel at what we've become.
And, I should stop here, but I'll continue on to the next point, which is all you people crying that "YOU MAKE MY INSURANCE RATES GO UP!!". I say, go jump in a lake, jerk, and mind your own GD business. You pay your insurance, I'll pay mine. The insurance companies are all for this, want to know why? Because the will PAY OUT less, not to keep John W. Yellow's rate down. Give me a break. That's all they care about, profits for the fat cats. They're going to charge you exactly what they are now, no more, no less. Whether *I* wear my seatbelt has nothing to do with. So for all of you who want to roll out this tired argument, I've already dismissed it. If you REALLY believe this is a valid argument, please go back to sleep because you're too stupid to be reasoned with.
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The seat belt law was a result of a successful citizen's referendum. You know the type you right wing wackos force on us every couple of years.
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Please note the word "SUCCESSFUL"..at least the moron who does not drive nor have a car gives credit to those who believe in the law....Perhaps more successful citizens referendums - like repealing gay marriage, or soon to repeal the tax boondoggle....on a roll folk, and in trons words - we are successful!
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Now now, I stand corrected. Citizen's Initiative. Gotcha. Noted. Makes it SOOOO much better, I can picture a sea of doogooders lined up to check the box, brainwashed by advertising. Hey, the POLICE CHIEF OF PODUNK COUNTY said that he was in favor of it! I saw that on television!
But, Mr. Tron, don't call me a right wing wacko. Even if I were one, the labels aren't important. I'm not a moderate either, because those who drive up the center of the road usually get run over. Is bleeding heart, pink-in-the-middle, commie liberal all that's left? So that's what I am? A long haired, left winger? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Why don't you try thinking for yourself, rather than trying to form your ideas fit neatly into a category.
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How much was spent last year and how many fewer deaths than the previous year? How about the year before that?
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Last year the Rumford Police Department got one of these Seatbelt enforcement grants. I attended a Selectmen's meeting and when the meeting adjourned I found three Rumford officers in uniform sitting in the station with their childern, there where little kids running all over inside the office with three officers and no other adults. I guess they forgot to close the shade so we couldn't see what they were doing. I asked how it was that three officers were on duty and one jumped in that he was working on grant funds doing seatbelt enforcement. I just shook my head. First it is dark out so he isn't going to be able to see if people going by are wearing seatbelts. Second he is in the station which means he is getting paid but not out writing tickets or warnings enforcing the seatbelt law per the grant that is paying him. Third, there were two other officers sitting around babysitting their kids on taxpayer time instead of out doing their jobs who could have been enforcing the seatbelt law. Don't these people realize that one way or another this money is coming out of our pockets, just different tax collector sticking his hand in there.
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What is missing here is how many fewer deaths there have been with spending $545,272 and more importantly were the people who died in the previous years involved in activities covered by the grants, i.e. an at fault driver drunk or the decedent not wearing a seatbelt. If the people who died say were all wearing seatbelts, seatbelts are not a factor and this should not be considered in this grant and we are wasting money. This article is just to vague and I suspect deliberately so. My experience has been our officers are spending much of their time sitting at the station not doing the taxpayers business or in their cars in non-productive non-activities.
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I asked the Bureau of Highway Safety about how many of those fatalities were wearing a seatbelt and this is the response I got from Michelle Ward, who is a Highway Safety Coordinator:
A search of the FARS records indicates in 2009 there were a total of 159 fatalities in the State of Maine. Of the 159 fatalities- 117 fatalities occurred in a passenger motor vehicle- (does not include large trucks, pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles and ATV’s) of the 117 fatalities - 49 individuals wore seat belts.
In 2008 there were a total of 155 fatalities in the State of Maine. Of the 155 fatalities- 108 fatalities occurred in a passenger motor vehicle- does not include large trucks, pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles and ATV’s) of the 108 fatalities- 51 individuals wore seat belts.
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Well, the program with this year's grant money has just started, so we won't know that information until the end of the summer.
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wear your seat belt, tron?
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The statistics say that more unbelted people die at night. Most of those people are likely going home from bars. I deliver the Sun Journal. That is city driving mostly driving on back roads very slow. I am putting my seat belt on because I can't afford a ticket. However, when it rains and I wear a poncho, I have seen it take me 10 minutes to get the poncho untangled from the belt. 10 minutes times 50+ stops? Could interfere with getting the paper delivered on time.
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10 Minutes?!?!??! Really?
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Watch out or us working folks will have to pay for that too!
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Look at the bright side tron - you'll never have anyone doing a seat belt check as you don't drive and don't have a car...
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I spent most of the weekend in an automobile, which says how much you know, which isn't much.
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yes but you were not driving duh!
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it is the safest it has ever been because there is less driving. Drop fuel to a buck a gallon and see where this goes...and give me a job while your at it.
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The police department are looking for ways to generate money via fines.
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to have your papers ready, if you look alien. Home invasions, beating death, and various vandalism and robberies, but they have the time and money to waste on this. Time to cut the police budget even more, they are bloated.
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Yay! Protect us from ourselves!!!!
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