Motorists are reminded to buckle up before starting their journey as part of a new seatbelt education and enforcement campaign launched by police today.

Senior Sgt Nick Clark, who has been a police officer for over 20 years including 6 years as a crash investigator, said that the Seat Belt Saves Lives campaign, which will run until at least mid 2017, aimed to educate people that seat belts and properly installed booster seats for children save lives.

The campaign would focus on high visibility police operations, strategically positioned variable message boards and a strong social media education component on the Tasmania Police Facebook page.

“Hundreds of lives have been saved and many more injuries prevented since the wearing of seat belts became mandatory in 1977,” Senior Sgt Clark said.

“The importance of seat belt use cannot be underestimated. The fact is that people die in “survivable crashes” as a result of failure to wear or not correctly wear seat belts and this is something that police want to take action on.”

Senior Sgt Clark said that in 2015/2016, there were nine fatal crashes in the Northern Police District alone.

“In three of those crashes the person who was killed wasn’t wearing a seat belt and in one other crash the person who died failed to wear their seat belt correctly,” Snr Sgt Clark said.

“Three of the crashes were “survivable crashes” – meaning that if the deceased had been wearing their seat belt, or wearing it correctly, they would have most likely survived.   All four crashes occurred on rural roads in 100 kph zones.”

Senior Sgt Clark said that the aim of the campaign was to save lives by increasing seat belt compliance – one of the major “fatal five factors” in crashes. The others are speed, alcohol/drugs, inattention, and driving while tired.

“The penalty for not wearing a seatbelt is $300 and 3 demerit points, but the real penalty could be a life or a serious injury,” he said.