As part of National Child Passenger Safety Week, which runs from September 15 through September 21, the East Pennsboro Township Police Department, Buckle Up PA, and the PA Traffic Injury Prevention Project today announced they will partner in an enforcement mobilization to help reduce child injuries and fatalities. The mobilization, which takes place from September 15 through September 28, 2019, will also highlight National Seat Check Saturday on September 21.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death for children. Every 32 seconds in 2017, one child under the age of 13 in a passenger vehicle was involved in a crash. Over one-third (35%) of those children were not restrained in car seats, booster seats, or seat belts. In passenger cars, child safety seats reduce the risk of fatal injury by 71 percent for infants and by 54 percent for toddlers. The best protection for all vehicle occupants is to ensure that everyone is properly restrained using age- and size-appropriate car seats, booster seats, or seat belts.

Motorists are reminded that Pennsylvania’s primary seat-belt law requires any occupant younger than 18 to buckle up when riding in a vehicle. Children under the age of two must be secured in a rear-facing car seat, and children under the age of four must be restrained in an approved child safety seat. Children must ride in a booster seat until their eighth birthday.

Drivers and front-seat passengers 18 years-old or older are also required to buckle up. If motorists are stopped for a traffic violation and are not wearing their seat belt, they can receive a second ticket and second fine.

East Pennsboro Township Police Department will join other departments and highway safety partners across the state to provide child passenger safety information, presentations, provide fitting stations and, if necessary, write citations. Police will also use Traffic Enforcement Zones, which combine enforcement patrol and checkpoint tactics on roadways with high numbers of unbuckled crashes. Citations will be issued to motorists who are caught transporting unrestrained children. 
 

For more information on seat belt safety, visit www.PennDOT.gov/Safety or www.eastpennsboropd.com.