11/7/2009 6:55:02 AM

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By Tim Ruzek

Post-Bulletin, Austin MN 

Local authorities last month helped a campaign to enforce the state's new primary seat belt law, leading to several dozen citations.

	Area seat-belt citations Oct. 9 to 22 Olmsted County -- 137 Rochester -- 82 Faribault -- 30 Austin -- 27 Albert Lea -- 25 Owatonna -- 24 Fillmore County -- 19 Steele County -- 19 Mower County -- 10 Blooming Prairie -- 8 Freeborn County -- 2

Austin police issued 27 citations overall during the statewide enforcement campaign from Oct. 9 to 22, officer Brian Blake said.

The Mower County Sheriff's Department reported citing 10 people for not wearing seat belts in the same period.

Austin officers found an 87 percent compliance for seat-belt use, Blake said.

"It's working," Blake said of the new law. "People are wearing their belts more."

Minnesota's first statewide, full-scale seat belt enforcement since the primary seat-belt law became effective June 9 resulted in 10,081 seat-belt citations, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. About 400 law-enforcement agencies participated in the October campaign.

A similar May 2009 belt-enforcement campaign resulted in 7,189 citations.

Under the primary belt law, drivers and all passengers, including in the back seat, must be buckled or in the correct child restraint, DPS says. Law enforcement may stop drivers and passengers for seat-belt violations, which lead to citations that cost more than $100.

Statewide, there were 187 child-seat citations and 1,606 nighttime belt citations, the state says. More than 60 percent of traffic deaths from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. are unbelted.

Austin police reported writing five seat-belt citations during the night. The sheriff's department had one.

Neither local agency reported citing someone for a child-restraint violation.

State officials say education and enforcement of the new law has helped push the state's belt use rate to a record high 90 percent, which has factored into a lower death count for the year and fewer unbelted deaths compared to 2008, state says.

To date, state officials report 340 traffic deaths this year compared to 370 at the same time in 2008.

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