Buckle up, or pay up. It's the time of year when the OPP are cracking down on drivers and passengers for not wearing their seatbelts.
For the next nine days, OPP officers will be monitoring traffic in and out of the city and will be handing out tickets to those not buckled. The annual "Spring Seatbelt Campaign" is a partnership between the Ontario Provincial Police and the Ministry of Transportation to keeps the roads safe. Officers will be on the look-out for properly installed child car seats as well. Fines are $240 for each infraction and will cost drivers two demerit points on their license. OPP officers say wearing a seatbelt is the single most important thing to do when getting behind the wheel of a car.
During the 2009 campaign, more than 32,000 cars were checked and 309 tickets were handed out in the Northwest Region. Officers will have random checkpoints set-up until April 24.
