Vincennes Police and the Knox County Sheriff’s Department will participate in a campaign to crack down on those who don’t use seatbelts.
Both departments will take part in Indiana’s Rural Demonstration Project which starts Sunday and will run through April 25th.
The three week effort is designed to increase high visability seatbelt patrols in 19 of Indiana’s rural counties currently reporting the highest percentage of unrestrained fatality accidents.
The Indiana Criminal Justice Institute says 460 Hoosiers died on rural roads in 2014 which accounts for almost 64 percent of the state’s total traffic fatals last year. Stats show that motorists driving and riding on rural roads face a greater risk of injury or death in an accident than those in urban or suburban areas.
During the RDP, officers will look for unrestrained motorists in all vehicles including pickups which have drivers with the the lowest percentage of restraint use in the state. Just a little more than 79 percent of pickup drivers use seatbelts compared to 93 percent of seatbelt usage in passenger vehicles.