Gainesville Police announced 14 days of stricter seat belt law enforcement on Facebook on Tuesday morning.
As part of the Click It or Ticket campaign, officers are increasing their focus on giving citations to people who drive without a seat belt from Nov. 17 to 30, according to a GPD press release.
"As we approach Thanksgiving and the holiday season, we want to make sure people are doing the one thing that can save them in a crash, buckling up," GPD spokesman Officer Ben Tobias wrote in the release.
In a campaign video posted to the department’s Facebook, a man drives down a neighborhood street with a woman in the passenger’s seat. A silver Mustang erupts from a four-way intersection and slams into their car, sending the man through its windshield.
The woman, wearing her seat belt, seems physically unharmed as the man falls in slow motion in a shower of broken glass.
He comes within inches of the pavement and floats back in time before the 30-second video ends with the man putting on his seat belt.
"When you’re not wearing your seat belt, you’re risking serious injury or death. And unlike a TV show or a movie, there’s no rewinding and no do-overs," said a video description on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website.
More than 21,000 people died in car accidents in 2013, and not wearing a seat belt caused 49 percent of those deaths, according to the NHTSA.
Contact Giuseppe Sabella at gsabella@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @Gsabella
