Buckle Up, Or Face Citations

Yvonne Gonzalez remembers the day when her family got into a car accident. She wasn’t wearing her seat belt.

“My mom accidentally hit a car that was passing by,” she recalled. “It actually pushed me a little forward. That’s it. Nothing major. But, it makes you think: It could’ve been worse.”

The federal transportation department says 45 million Americans are not buckling up — the majority of those being teenagers and young adults.

Richard Nocum believes it’s because they think it’s cool not to do it.

“Because it’s like, ‘look at me, I’m breaking the law,'” he explained.

But, buckling up has its benefits. For example, drivers, passengers and kids have a 50% better chance of surviving a crash if they wear their seatbelts.

According to law enforcement 95% of Californians are actually buckling up. The 5% who aren’t amounts to about 500,000 people.

This year the fines have gone up. It’s $142 for each adult seat belt violation. For children under 16 years old, the fine is $445.