Police throughout the state will be cracking down on seat belt scofflaws during a weeklong “Buckle Up – No Excuses” campaign that begins Monday.

In the Oxford Hills, police departments in Norway, Oxford and Paris, and the Oxford County Sheriff’s Department plan to dedicate extra manpower to the effort.

Many more summonses will be issued for seat belt violations than the norm during the awareness campaign, which is relying on nearly $200,000 in grant funding from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“The goal isn’t to write tons of tickets, the goal is to have voluntary compliance,” said Oxford Police Sgt. Theron Bickford. Compared nationally, Maine has a poor rate of compliance with seat belt laws, especially among men 18 to 34 years of age.

In his eight years with Oxford police, Bickford said, “I can think of four collisions where a total of five people were killed, and if they were wearing seat belts, they’d be alive today.”

Many other injuries he’s seen at crash scenes would have been less serious or prevented altogether if the person been wearing a seat belt, he said.

Mandatory seat belt use has been the law for child and adult alike since 1997, but citations are issued only if police stop the vehicle for another reason, such as speeding, having a brake light out or having an expired inspection sticker.

During the campaign, officers will take turns on extra shifts dedicated to searching out seat belt violators. Whether they issue summonses or warnings is up to them, but Bickford said summonses can, and will, be issued to both drivers and passengers over the age of 18 who violate the law.

The penalty for a first violation is $62.50, but it can go as high as $500 for repeat offenders.

Under the law, a driver is responsible for ensuring both he or she and all passengers under 18 are properly secured in safety belts. Passengers 18 and older are responsible for themselves.

“We’re not going out there to make people’s lives miserable. The goal is not only to educate, but also to add a little reminder, in the form of a summons,” Bickford said.