During this year’s Click It or Ticket campaign, from May 18 through May 31, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Southwest Station will have additional deputies on patrol looking for drivers and passengers who are not wearing seat belts. This includes vehicles in which children are not secured in child safety seats or the appropriate safety seats for their age.
California law requires all children under two years old to ride in a rear-facing car seat, unless the child is 40 or more pounds or is 40 or more inches tall. Once a child reaches these milestones, all children under the age of eight are required to be secured in a car seat or booster seat.
Children under the age of eight may not ride in the front seat unless the vehicle is not equipped with a rear, forward-facing seat. Children eight and older, or who are at least 4 feet 9 inches tall, may be secured by a booster seat, but at a minimum must be wearing a properly fitted safety belt.
“Our priority is protecting the people in our community,” Deputy Eastwood said. “Wearing a seat belt or properly securing children in car seats or a booster seat gives everyone a better chance of surviving a crash. We want every trip – short or long – to end safely, so please buckle up every time.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2023, 10,484 people killed in crashes in the U.S. were not wearing a seat belt. In California, there were 780 unrestrained people killed in crashes that same year, including 24 children. Additionally, unrestrained child fatalities in California increased by 4.3 percent from 2022 to 2023.
Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
