Ridgefield, Clark County, and state regulation enforcement officers making ready for Click on It or Ticket Marketing campaign
RIDGEFIELD — For essentially the most half, it’s about schooling first, then enforcement if wanted.
Andy Marvitz and regulation enforcement officers throughout the state need you to be secure. They need you to be round to your households.
They need you to put on your seat belt.
Goal Zero, the Washington State Strategic Freeway Security Plan that has the purpose of zero deaths and 0 critical accidents on Washington roadways by 2030, is emphasizing the significance of seat belts this month.
Particularly, making certain younger individuals are sporting seat belts.
In line with Goal Zero, Washington residents do use their seat belts at a excessive charge — 93 p.c of us in 2020. Nonetheless, of the 7 p.c who don’t, lots of them are younger drivers. In reality, drivers aged 16 to 25 have the bottom seat-belt use charge of all ages of drivers concerned in deadly crashes.
Marvitz, a Ridgefield police officer, and his colleagues all through the county, are serving to Goal Zero this month with an emphasis on educating the general public concerning seat belts.
“I’ve been concerned within the visitors security process pressure,” he mentioned, noting the emphasis on drivers with cell telephones or different distractions, and, after all, seat-belt use. “I used to be drawn to it as a result of visitors security is one thing that’s actually necessary. When we’ve got these emphasis, we’ve got the power to affect lives, change lives. We do lots by schooling. And we do it by enforcement. There are occasions we have to do it with precise enforcement motion. However a variety of it’s merely about schooling and mentioning consciousness.”
Marvitz, 32, grew up within the Hockinson space, and has been in regulation enforcement for greater than eight years. He has seen nice outcomes from folks sporting seat belts, and he has seen the results of when seat belts weren’t used.
“I feel folks don’t actually course of and acknowledge the importance of what seat belts truly do,” Marvitz mentioned.
Lately, he was known as upon a scene when a younger driver hit a retaining wall at round 60 mph.
“Woman walked out and not using a scratch,” Maritz mentioned. “If she had not been sporting a seat belt, that will have been a completely completely different story.”
Years in the past, Marvitz was the one who needed to give a notification to a member of the family of a driver who died. Marvitz knew the main points of the crash. It was a roll-over, however not at an incredible excessive charge of pace. The motive force was ejected, although.
“Had they been sporting a seat belt, it will have been a really preventable demise,” Marvitz mentioned. “That one positively caught with me.”
In reality, he mentioned he makes use of that for example for anybody who claims that not sporting a seat belt is a victimless crime.
“You don’t care about your self? That’s positive. I care about your security,” Marvitz says. “Or I’m the officer who has to knock on your loved ones’s door with the notification.”
In Could, the month of Mom’s Day, Goal Zero is asking mothers of younger drivers to teach their youngsters on the significance of sporting a seat belt.
Additionally, a “Click on It or Ticket” marketing campaign is about to start Could 18 all through the state. It’s an emphasis occasion.
Marvitz mentioned on the lookout for seat belt utilization is a basic act of patrolling for the Ridgefield division on an on a regular basis foundation. Nonetheless, with the marketing campaign, anticipate to see some additional measures all through all of Clark County, all through the state.
There is perhaps a plains-clothed officer standing on a road nook, to watch drivers stopped at a light-weight, for instance. The officer then can name forward to an officer in a patrol automobile, who will then make contact with the driving force.
Not each cease leads to a quotation, although.
“I attempt to attempt for the schooling route,” Marvitz mentioned. “We’re not right here to be jerks. We’re not right here to damage folks’s days. We’re out right here to teach and ensure individuals are secure.”
If, by that dialog, the officer feels the driving force has obtained the message, then that is a chance for a teachable second, Marvitz mentioned, fairly than an enforceable second.
Both manner, the message is evident: Seat belts save lives. And though 93 p.c of Washington residents put on their seat belts, that also leaves 7 p.c who may use slightly extra schooling, in response to Goal Zero.
Marvitz is a stable ambassador for Goal Zero right here in Clark County. He grew up right here. He went to the Clark County Abilities Heart (now Cascadia Tech Academy) for his introduction into felony justice. And he at all times needed to work in a small neighborhood similar to Ridgefield.
“I used to be actually intrigued with serving as a career,” mentioned Marvitz, who’s married and the daddy of a child boy.
He mentioned he loves with the ability to assist folks daily.
Typically which means having a dialog about security. He’s a subject professional, in any case, on the usage of seat belts.
Notice: For extra on Goal Zero and this month’s marketing campaign, go to: https://www.wtscpartners.com/campaigns/2021/05/05/mothers-day-click-it-or-ticket-campaign/
Additionally learn:
Multi-agency visitors patrols are used to not solely implement distracted driving legal guidelines, but additionally to teach residents on what is definitely not allowed whereas driving.
