During the recent Click It or Ticket campaign, officers, deputies, and troopers from 272 agencies across Minnesota issued 1,922 seat belt citations and 108 child restraint citations between May 20 and June 2. This is a decrease from the 2,382 seat belt and 130 child seat citations issued during the same period in 2023.
Incidents included Hastings police pulling over a woman wearing her infant in a chest baby carrier, resulting in a child restraint citation. A Douglas County sheriff’s deputy stopped a vehicle for seat belt violations, leading to the driver’s arrest for DWI and drug possession. In South Lake Minnetonka, a driver, when asked why he wasn’t wearing a seat belt, responded, “If I’m meant to die, I’ll die.” In the Thief River Falls region alone, 35 citations were issued.