The Niagara County Sheriff's Office will participate in a state-funded, public surveillance campaign called "Click It or Ticket."
Starting this week, and running through June 1, roadblocks will be set up at various, locations with armed deputies inspecting motorists to determine if they are wearing seatbelts.
Those who aren't, will be fined.
For their own safety, and to inspire a spirit of obedience, arrest is possible for those, who, after being ticketed, refuse to comply.
State of New York officials warn that, since "a study of crash records indicates that seatbelt use at night in New York State is lower than during daytime hours, several nighttime enforcement mobilizations will be performed during the enforcement wave."
Nationwide, about 11,000 law enforcement agencies will detain Americans at random checkpoints as part of the public safety campaign.
"Wearing a seat belt is the best way to save lives and reduce serious injuries during accidents," said Niagara County Sheriff, Jim Voutour.
A U.S. Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) study estimates that 100 percent obedience with seatbelt laws could prevent 9,200 fatalities per year. The US DOT estimates also that motorists involved in crashes who did not wear seatbelts account for an estimated $26 billion in additional health care, lost productivity, and travel delay, annually.
Democrats in Washington DC, and Manhattan have sponsored numerous as yet un-passed laws attempting to prohibit smoking, limit alcohol consumption, and mandating proper diet, or at least banning unhealthy food choices in restaurants and stores. They suggest that, based on the precedent set by seatbelt laws, stronger laws should be enacted to ensure citizens are required to make wiser health and safety choices. They argue that unwise health and safety choices cost society more money than lack of seatbelt compliance and that government has a compelling interest in ensuring its property, the American people, are properly cared for.
The Centers for Disease Control estimates that tobacco kills 480,000 Americans per year, and costs society $100 billion in health care costs; alcohol kills 88,000 and cost society $220 billion per year and obesity-related deaths exceed 100,000 and cost $147 billion per year in health care costs.
In opposition to the notion that people, not government, own themselves and have the inalienable right to choose for themselves on all matters that involve their own health and safety, seatbelt law advocates are supported in their arguments by public relations expert, Joseph Goebbels, who explained decades ago, "To be a socialist, is to submit the I to the thou; socialism is sacrificing the individual to the whole."
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