ARE you belting up?
New figures have revealed a steep rise in the number of motorists not wearing their seat belts in North East Lincolnshire.
Statistics showed there were three times as many drivers caught not wearing seat belts in September than in an average month.
Humberside Police traffic officers dealt with a total of 61 offenders compared with the previous few months when there were about 20 each month between April and August.
There were increased patrols and more roadside monitoring by officers, who handed out advice leaflets to motorists.
More than 500 fines are handed out annually to people who fail to wear seat belts in Grimsby and Cleethorpes.
According to research, motorists have between a 40 and 60 per cent chance of surviving a crash if they wear seat belts.
There are 370 deaths and 7,000 serious injuries nationally each year prevented by wearing a seat belt.
About 85 per cent of front seat occupants and 50 per cent of rear seat occupants wear seat belts in vehicles.
Humberside Police's casualty reduction officer, PC Barry Gardner, said: "Unfortunately my colleagues and I are still attending scenes of collisions where people have died or are seriously injured as a result of making that decision not to wear a seat belt.
"Crashes happen, we try to work to avoid that fact, but it is inevitable given the number of vehicles on the road that despite the best efforts of teams such as the Road Safety Partnership, things do go wrong. I would encourage everyone to just think road safety and wear their seat belt at all times on all journeys."
He added: "Seat belts are one of Humberside Police's core offences, and while we highlighted the offence during September, it is an offence we look to deal with pro-actively all year round."
The road safety officer said seat belts save lives as they are the single most effective, and least costly, road safety measure for car occupants.
It is estimated seat belts have saved more than 300,000 lives and prevented more than nine million injuries in highly motorised countries over the past 25 years.
Motorists seen not wearing a seat belt face a £60 fine.
