May 23, 2008

As thousands of people plan to hit the roadways during the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), Illinois State Police (ISP), and hundreds of other local police agencies in Illinois are teaming up to crackdown on drivers who fail to buckle up.

During the "Click It or Ticket" Mobilization, officers will take a "zero-tolerance" approach to drivers who fail to buckle up as local police and sheriffs’ departments across the state set up numerous day and night time safety belt enforcement zones. During the mobilization, more than 500 local, state and county law enforcement agencies will dedicate more than 15,000 hours in enforcement details between May 1 and June 1, 2008. The State Police alone will conduct more than 2,000 details focusing on safety belt enforcement, speed reduction, impaired driving, and underage drinking in an effort to decrease fatalities and personal injury crashes.

In addition, the ISP will continue an initiative introduced last year called "Stay Alive on the I’s". The enforcement initiative begins on Friday, May 23, at noon and continues until 10 p.m. During that time, all interstates will be saturated with Troopers placed every 10 miles along interstate corridors. The "Stay Alive on the I’s" enforcement initiative concludes on Monday, May 26, with a detail from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m.