Patrols Step Up Expectation For Seat Belt Use [AUDIO]

The Wyoming Highway Patrol is going to step up their patrols for the Memorial Day holiday. This year, they are going to be checking whether or not the drivers and passengers of the vehicles they stop are wearing seat belts.

Highway Patrol Sgt Stephen Townsend says the stepped up patrols are a part of the nationwide campaign.

Days before and after holiday:

"We're going to be participating a nationwide campaign called May Mobilization, and that starts on May 23rd and runs for quite a while, actually until midnight on June 5th. And this campaign focuses on high visibility enforcement during the campaign, in which we will be concentrating on seat belt violations, in addition to moving violations, but mainly trying to save lives through education and seat belts."

Statistically, Wyoming drivers often neglect to buckle their seat belts, says Sgt. Townsend, so the patrol is adopting a zero tolerance for anybody not wearing a seat belt in the course of a traffic stop.

Everyone in a vehicle buckled up:

"Wyoming's seat belt use rate currently is about 78.9 percent, compared nationally to 85 percent, so we need to raise our seat belt rate up quite a bit."