Heading into the Memorial Day travel weekend, there’s no shortage of law enforcement agencies tapping federal grant funds to step up enforcement of safety restraint usage.
Fred Zwonechek is Administrator of the Nebraska Office of Highway Safety. He says mini-grants allotted to law enforcement agencies are funded by Federal Highway Safety money. The goal is to increase seatbelt and child safety seat usage.
There is still concern about lower seatbelt use in rural areas of Nebraska. Zwonechek says most of the fatal accidents occur in rural areas.
Zwonechek says when serious crashes happen in rural areas where severe trauma occurs, it’s sometimes takes longer to transport the injured for treatment, losing valuable time.
Nebraska has a secondary offense seatbelt law, while 32 states now have primary enforcement measures.where police can stop a motorist when they observe a safety restraint not being us.
For the coming budget year, 22 counties have designated as priority counties by the Nebraska Office of Highway Safety, for special project grant funding.
Zwonechek says those grants attack problems such as drunk driving, traffic speed, safety belt use and issues involving younger drivers
