Provincial police are on the look out for anyone not wearing a seat belt this Easter weekend.
Over the past decade, the OPP has laid 257,475 seat belt charges. The 25 to 34-year-old age group were issued the most charges, 63,846 over the past ten years. The 35 to 44 age group was second with nearly 51,000 charges while 45 to 54-year-olds were third with 50,488 charges.
Chatham-Kent OPP Constable Jay Denorer says "in ten years, that's a pretty staggering stat in the amount of tickets that were laid."
Denorer says they've heard a lot of excuses when it comes to seat belts. "When the seat belt comes across, it rubs on my neck and it's just very uncomfortable. I will see people that will actually flip their shoulder strap over and put it behind their back because of that reason. They're partially wearing their seat belt but its not designed to be worn that way so you're actually going to cause more injury."
In 2017, 49 people died in crashes on OPP-patrolled roads in cases where they were not safely buckled up. Over the past ten years, 639 people have died in crashes where the victim failed to wear or properly wear a seat belt.