BEVERLY HILLS—On May 1, the Beverly Hills Police Department announced that it is reminding travelers to always buckle up and secure children in the right car seats when visiting friends and family. This year’s Click It or Ticket campaign runs from May 18 to 31.
During this time, BHPD will have additional officers on patrol actively looking for drivers and passengers who are not wearing seat belts. This includes vehicles in which children are not secured in child safety seats or the appropriate safety seats for their age.
“Our priority is protecting the people in our community. Wearing a seat belt or properly securing children in car seats or a booster seat gives everyone a better chance of surviving a crash,” Beverly Hills Police Chief Mark G. Stainbrook said. “We want every trip – short or long – to end safely, so please buckle up every time.”
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2023, 10,484 people killed in crashes in the U.S. were not wearing a seat belt. In California, there were 780 unrestrained people killed in crashes that same year, including 24 children. Unrestrained child fatalities in California increased by 4.3 percent from 2022 to 2023.
California law requires all children under 2 years old to ride in a rear-facing car seat, unless the child is 40 or more pounds or is 40 or more inches tall. Once a child reaches these milestones, all children under 8 years old are still required to be secured in a car seat or booster seat.
Children under 8 may not ride in the front seat unless the vehicle is not equipped with a rear, forward-facing seat. Children 8 and older, or those at least 4 feet and 9 inches tall, may be secured in a booster seat, but must at a minimum wear a properly fitted safety belt.
Parents and caregivers are asked to keep children in the proper rear or forward-facing seat as long as possible and use the “Five-Step Test” to determine if their child is big enough to safely use a seat belt without a booster seat.
Funding for the program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
By Danny Jones