Kewaunee County Sheriff Matt Joski is proud of parents changing the culture around wearing seat belts. According to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, seat belt usage is at an all-time high at 88 percent of drivers and passengers buckling up. It lags neighboring states, but it is up nearly five percent from five years ago. Some of the biggest changes come from motorists with children that have to consider weight and age when safely putting them in their vehicle. Thanks to technology, parents are doing a great job buckling them up according to Joski, though it has created a side effect.

The DOT says three out of every four child safety seats are not installed correctly. You can read the rest of Joski’s article celebrating Seatbelt Awareness Month online with this story.

FROM SHERIFF JOSKI

With May being recognized as a month of seatbelt awareness as well as a month where we will see additional enforcement for compliance, I felt it appropriate to get this article out early in the month.

Most of us have had the experience of following a vehicle and realizing that the kids inside the vehicle seem much too mobile to be properly wearing their seatbelts. While we may also observe adults not wearing seatbelts, our concern for the well being of children tends to cause us much more anxiety. Below are some basic facts in regards to Wisconsin’s seatbelt and safety restraint laws.

Wisconsin State statute 347.48 addresses seatbelts and safety restraints as follows:

347.48(2m)(b)” If a motor vehicle is required to be equipped with safety belts in this state, no person may operate that motor vehicle unless the person is properly restrained in a safety belt.”

What this means is that if the vehicle came equipped with safety belts you must wear them.

347.48(4) defines the use of safety restraints for children. This pertains to any child under the age of eight.

• If the child is less than one year old or weighs less than 20lbs, then the child should be properly restrained in a rear facing child seat in one of the rear passenger seat positions.
• If the child is less than 4 years old or weighs less than 40 lbs, then the child should be properly restrained in a forward facing child seat in one of the rear passenger seat positions.
• If the child is less than 8 years old or weighs less than 80 lbs the child should be properly restrained in a booster seat.

I hope that this provides some basic information which will help those of us who have kids, but may not know some of the determining factors as to when we should have them in the proper safety restraints. For more information including fines you can visit the following website:

https://dot.wisconsin.gov/safety/vehicle/child/laws.htm

Bottom line is that we should as adults set the example by wearing our seatbelts, and for those of us that are parents, take the time to make sure our precious cargo is also secured properly. Also, the law has recently changed in that law enforcement can initiate a traffic stop based on our observation of a person not wearing a seatbelt. In other words “Click It or Ticket”