EXTRA traffic officers will be on patrol as part of a police campaign to crack down on people not wearing seatbelts.
Police say 370 deaths and 7,000 injuries across the country could be prevented on the roads each year if seatbelts were worn.
Humberside Police have today launched a month-long campaign, which will see more officers on patrol to spot drivers and passengers who are not wearing seatbelts.
Officers will also be looking out for children who are not restrained properly while travelling in a vehicle.
PC Barry Gardner, who is leading the campaign, said: "Officers will be increasing high-visibility policing activity with a view to not only disrupting, preventing and detecting criminal activity, but also to reduce road collisions and casualties, particularly those involving death and serious injury.
"If compliance rates can be increased, the severity of injury in the event of a road collision can be reduced dramatically.
"By raising awareness, it is hoped to increase seatbelt wearing compliance levels through enforcement, education and encouragement."
The law says a driver is responsible for themselves and any passenger under 14. Any passenger over 14 is responsible for their own seatbelt.
Figures released by the police say that only 85 per cent of front seat passengers and 50 per cent of rear seat passengers say they comply with the seatbelt laws when travelling in a vehicle.
Police say drivers and passengers who do not wear a seatbelt are putting other people's lives at risk as well as their own.
An inquest held earlier this year heard a Hull mother and her son could still be alive if three backseat passengers in their car had been wearing seatbelts.
Iwona Bartczak, 40, and her 18-year-old son Konrad were travelling in the front of a Ford Focus that crashed into another car on the B1248 near Wetwang.
They were heading to work at a bacon factory in Malton when the crash happened on November 27 last year.
Rysard Orlowski, who was travelling in the back of the car, was also killed.
At the inquest, traffic constable David Taylor described the accident as a "survivable collision" and said three people travelling in the back of the car were not wearing their seatbelts.
He said the damage was from the back of the seat and was caused by "human projectiles at the back".
PC Gardner said: "There are exemptions, but essentially all drivers and passengers of motor vehicles, which includes cars, light vans and any vehicle up to 3.5 tonnes, must wear seatbelts."
Keeping children safe when drivingPOLICE will also be looking out to ensure children are properly restrained in cars during the campaign.
The law states:
Children under three years old must use the child restraint appropriate for their weight in any vehicle (including vans and other goods vehicles). There is one exception – a child under three may travel unrestrained in the rear of a taxi if the correct restraint is not available.
Rear-facing baby seats must not be used in a seat protected by a frontal airbag unless the airbag has been deactivated manually or automatically.
In vehicles where seatbelts are fitted, children aged three years to 135cm in height must use the appropriate child restraint. They must use an adult belt if correct child restraint is not available in a taxi, for a short distance in an unexpected necessity, or if two occupied child restraints prevent fitting a third.
