Buckle up call- Sergeant Scott Roberts and Constable Walter are urging residents to buckle up. 51470

Picture: Donna Oates
POLICE are clamping down on drivers and passengers in Dandenong who are not buckling up.
Operation Pin Ball, which started on 3 August and runs until 14 August, coincides with the 40th anniversary of vehicle restraint legislation, which made it compulsory for all car occupants to wear a properly secured seatbelt.
State Highway Patrol officers will be focusing on motorists, passengers, unrestrained children and the transport and heavy vehicle industry as they target high-risk road trauma areas in Victoria, including Greater Dandenong.
Police will be using a range of operational tactics to detect seat belt offences, using both highly visible uniform officers and undercover police.
Motorists and passengers caught without a seatbelt will receive a $239 fine and drivers will lose three demerit points.
City of Greater Dandenong Highway Patrol Sergeant Scott Roberts said he was surprised at how many people were not buckling up.
“(Last week) in a two-day period we caught about 40 people for offences, the majority for not wearing seatbelts,” he said.
“It’s surprising in this day in age and it is disappointing at the same time,” he said.
Sgt Roberts said many people who don’t wear seatbelts do not realise the impact they can have on their passengers.
“If you are in a car and not wearing a seatbelt, but a passenger is, they stand to suffer from serious injury because you are going to be thrown around if you are in an accident,” he said.
Deputy Commissioner for Road Policing Ken Lay said more than a fifth of drivers fined during State Highway Patrol traffic operations this year across the state were found not wearing a seatbelt.
“Wearing a seatbelt is one of the easiest things people can do to protect themselves and their families on the roads. Time and time again police are attending serious injury and fatal collisions involving people not wearing seatbelts. In so many instances people would have survived or escaped with minor injuries had they been wearing a properly secured seatbelt,” Mr Lay said.
“That is why it is so incredibly frustrating for police when we continually catch motorists without seatbelts. There is no excuse for this and over the next two weeks we will be strongly focusing our efforts on seatbelt enforcement and awareness.”
Sgt Roberts warned drivers that police would continue to target occupants without seatbelts after Operation Pinball concludes.
“We are definitely cracking down and we will continue after the operation,” he said.