Seatbelt warning in police road campaign

Officers have warned drivers to ‘belt up’ or ‘risk being burned in their pockets’ following the recent clampdown on motoring offences.

The Shipley Neighbourhood Policing Team has advised drivers they will face action if they are caught driving without seatbelts following the operation on main roads in the Shipley area.

As well as the fixed penalty notices officers also gave five verbal warnings to drivers for minor traffic offences.

Inspector John Tatham, of the Shipley Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “It is good news that the majority of drivers we stopped in the week-long operation were using seatbelts but we need to keep reinforcing the message to residents.

“It is beyond doubt that seatbelts save lives so it is not a case of officers being petty, we just simply want to do all we can to protect safety on our roads.”

Police will continue to focus on road safety in the Shipley area in the weeks to come.

Inspector Tatham said: “We will be keeping an eye out for all road safety breaches as well as drivers not using their seatbelts after this week, so motorist are best advised to ‘belt up’ and help us make our roads safer.”

The work was just one of a number of recent casualty reduction operations in Bradford to raise awareness of the need to use seatbelts among drivers.

Some of these have seen officers take mobile DVD players out with them to show drivers a video highlighting what can happen to those involved in a collision who are not protected.

Government research shows people who do not wear seatbelts are twice as likely to die as those who do not in the event of a crash.

Back seat passengers who do not wear seatbelts risk fatally injuring those in front.