The cost of one bicycle-tire tube: about four dollars.
The cost of one gallon of gasoline: (for the time being at least) about $4. Price of your first seat belt ticket in Placer County: $101.50. Your second seat belt violation will cost $206.75. Yikes, seat belt violations can add substantially to the cost of driving.
The Truckee C.H.P. (California Highway Patrol) has received a federally funded Pedestrian Safety Corridor Grant funding approximately 2,000 overtime hours this summer to enforce right-of-way and other moving violations along Highway 28 between Stateline, Nevada, and Tahoe City; and Highway 89 from Tahoe City to Truckee – all under Truckee CHP jurisdiction. There will also be maximum enforcement periods during holidays when additional officers are on patrol.
If you or your passengers are not wearing seat belts this summer as you cruise around Lake Tahoe, chances are you will meet an officer, most likely on a mountain bike, who will certainly fine you. As Officer Skeen from the Truckee CHP puts it, ‘Always wear your seat belt. It only takes a moment and statistics show that seat belts save lives.’
Click it or ticket. Or better yet, pedal your bike.
Seat Belt Factoids
In 1967 Lyndon Johnson signed a bill that made seat belts and shatter-proof windshields mandatory in passenger vehicles.
New Hampshire is the only state that does not require adults to wear seat belts.
Wyoming had the highest number of fatal accidents per capita in 2003. There is no primary seat belt enforcement in Wyoming.
California was ranked 13th in the same accident survey, behind New Hampshire which ranked 6th.
First seat belt law in California passed in 1986. In 1993 the seatbelt law was changed from secondary to primary enforcement in California. In 2007 over 90 percent of Californians wore seatbelts. (Primary enforcement means that you may be stopped for noncompliance. Secondary enforcement means that you may be issued a fine only when another primary infraction has first been observed. For example, the new cell phone law is enforced secondarily, meaning you can’t be pulled over exclusively for that infraction.)
What do you think of the enforcement of the seat belt law in Tahoe City and California?
Customers and staff at New Moon Natural Foods in Tahoe City answer:
See their answers attached to the photos with this article!
