A Click It or Ticket campaign will be running in Hunterdon and Somerset counties through June 5.
Law enforcement officers from throughout Somerset and Hunterdon counties will join with police agencies from around the country in cracking down on unbuckled motorists and passengers as part of the national 2016 Click it or Ticket campaign.
Starting on Monday and running through June 5, the Click It or Ticket national mobilization initiative will utilize high visibility seat belt checkpoints and saturation patrols to reiterate the life-saving value of seat belts, according to a news release.
"Using a seat belt is the simplest way for a driver and his or her passengers to protect themselves when traveling," said Gary Poedubicky, acting director of the state's Division of Highway Traffic Safety. "In 2013, 21,000 people in the U.S. were killed in traffic crashes, and almost half of them were unrestrained."
Poedubicky added that a key focus for the campaign this year is to promote seat belt usage by adult passengers in the rear seats of vehicles. The front seat belt usage rate in New Jersey currently stands at 91.36-percent.
However, adults riding in rear seats are only buckling up at a rate of 39-percent.
"This is a concern," he said. "We need to drive home the message that all motor vehicle occupants need to buckle up during every trip, in every seating position."
During last year's campaign, 372 New Jersey police agencies participated. As a result of the 2015 two-week initiative, law enforcement officers issued 26,308 seat belt citations, 4,969 speeding summonses and made 833 impaired driving arrests.