Buffalo Grove Police Participating in Holiday Traffic Crackdown

The Buffalo Grove police department is putting extra officers on the road through Dec. 1 to crack down on impaired drivers and seatbelt law violators.

The extra patrols will focus on nighttime drivers.

“Whether you’re going across town or across the state this Thanksgiving, please make sure everyone in the car is wearing their seat belt. As of January 1, 2012, by law in Illinois, everyone in a vehicle must wear a seat belt,” said Mike Rodriguez, sergeant of the Traffic Unit in Buffalo Grove. “Our officers are prepared to ticket anyone who is not wearing a seat belt and arrest those choosing to drive impaired.”

Illinois has a 93.7 percent daytime seat belt usage rate, the police department said in a press release. However, far too many drivers and passengers still do not buckle up — especially late at night. In Illinois, during the 2012 Thanksgiving holiday, nine vehicle occupants died in motor vehicle traffic crashes — three of those deaths involved a drinking driver and over 700 individuals were injured.  

“Our goal is to save more lives, so Buffalo Grove Police will be out enforcing seat belt laws around the clock,” Rodriguez said. “Additional enforcement will take place late at night when belt use is at its lowest and impaired driving is the biggest problem.” 

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, seat belts saved almost 12,000 lives nationwide in 2011.

For more information about the Click It or Ticket and the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaigns, visit www.buckleupillinois.org.

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