Click It campaign yields 790 citations

T. J. ROYAL

Police wrote 790 citations in Edgecombe County during their latest Click It or Ticket campaign over the Memorial Day holidays.

That's 205 more citations than were written in Edgecombe over the two-week period for Memorial Day 2008.

This year's Click It or Ticket campaign, where seat belt and child restraint enforcements are the main focus, was done from May 18-31. There were 30 different checkpoints set up in Edgecombe focusing on the campaign, as well as 41 additional patrol saturation points to catch up with people for violations.

Tarboro Police Sgt. Bob Cox, the Governor's Highway Safety Program Law Enforcement Liaison for Region 4, said the state Highway Patrol, the Edgecombe County Sheriff's Office, as well as the Tarboro, Pinetops and Princeville police departments assisted with the campaign in Edgecombe.

"These agencies as well as other agencies across the state put forth a concentrated effort ... to save lives by encouraging seat belt usage through strict enforcement. I applaud these agencies' efforts and I'm very pleased with the results," Cox said.

There were 192 occupant restraint violations, which included 18 child-seat restraint citations and 174 seat belt citations, over the two-week period.

Highway Patrol 1st Sgt. Martin Jones said that one of his troopers wrote 34 seat belt tickets within one week's time during this latest Click It or Ticket campaign.

"If we can get the word out about wearing your seat belt, it'll save your life," Jones added.

There were 36 criminal citations written by police, including 11 drug violations, eight felony violations, as well as nine fugitives who were brought into police custody.

There were 210 speeding violations, and 106 driving with license revoked violations, that police cited in Edgecombe County during the campaign.

There were 21 driving while impaired citations, two of them served on drivers under the legal drinking age of 21.

Twelve reckless driving charges, and 13 uninsured motorist citations, also were made during the Click It or Ticket campaign.

Across the state during the two-week campaign, 83,811 citations were written. Pitt County had the most citations out of the counties adjacent to Edgecombe, with 1,545. Nash County had 839 citations.

The next Governor's Highway Safety Program traffic enforcement event will be June 29 through July 5 for the Booze It and Lose It campaign.

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