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Grayson County Sheriff’s Office receives grant to pay overtime so deputies can enforce seat belt laws
By Grayson County Sheriff’s Department
May 25, 2005

The Grayson County Sheriff’s Office has united with Law Enforcement agencies across the five state region in a concerted effort to convince pick-up and passenger car drivers and their passengers in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and the Indian Nations to buckle Up in Your Vehicles.

Surveys show that well over a million drivers and passengers, especially in pick-up trucks in the five state region are still not buckling up, resulting in more than 1,000 pickup occupants dying in the five states every year in traffic-related crashes.  Pickups are twice as likely to roll over as passenger cars in fatal crashes.  Nearly half of the deaths in pickup crashes in the five state region have resulted from rollovers.

Sheriff Gary states, “Wearing your safety belt reduces the risk of dying by up to 80% in a crash, especially in a rollover crash and buckling up is your only defense against being ejected from your vehicle.

“For the “Click-it or Ticket” campaign, the Grayson County Sheriff’s Office has received a grant from the Texas Department of Transportation to pay Deputies overtime to work the county roads and issue tickets, not warning tickets, to those who do not wear their safety belts.  The Sheriff’s Office field deputies, due to the lack of personnel, usually do not have the ability to enforce the seat belt laws.  The grant money given to us will allow off-duty deputies to work for the next several weeks, doing nothing but writing tickets for failure to be buckled in.  We will be very aggressive in this,” said Sheriff Gary.

Texas law states that, everyone in the front seat of a vehicle must wear a safety belt, plus all children younger than age 17 are required to be secured with a safety belt or in an approved child safety seat, weather they are sitting in the front or back seat.  A child younger than 4-year’s of age or less than 36 inches tall must be secured in a child safety seat.  Violations in Grayson County for seatbelt violation is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine and court costs of $135.00 for each adult and $190.00 fine and court cost per child.

Sheriff Gary also said, “The safety belt must be secured and the lap belt and any shoulder strap must be used in accordance with the instructions issued by the manufacturer, in other words, you cannot place the shoulder strap behind you and just use the lap belt unless you have written permission from a licensed physician.  This program is designed to save lives, not collect revenue for the county.”