Drivers may have eased off the accelerators on the Thanksgiving weekend, but Alberta Sheriffs caught more people than ever before sans seatbelt.
“Despite our recent ‘ugly’ seatbelt campaign, people still didn’t buckle up,” Solicitor General spokeswoman Eilish Lemieux said yesterday. “It’s the most effective way to reduce injury and death by motor vehicle.”
Sheriffs issued 406 seatbelt tickets over the weekend — over four times the number issued during the previous Thanksgiving enforcement campaign.
Lemieux said child restraint infractions equalled three times the number issued in 2008.
One Edmonton driver caught unbelted was also fined for each of the three children in his vehicle — all of whom weren’t in car seats. The following day he was pulled over again. He received $575 in fines.
Treacherous weather may have contributed to the general deceleration on highways, Lemieux said. Speeding violations clocked in at 1,163 this year, in comparison to 2,798 last year.
