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Published on Monday, May 31, 2004
in the Bradenton Herald
MANATEE - Bradenton resident Pat Provett was driving her daughter to work on Sunday when she was told by a Florida Highway Patrol officer to pull her car over to the side of the road because she was speeding.
She was going over the 35-mile per hour speed limit posted along 43rd Street West, just south of Cortez Road.
"I knew I was going too fast," Provett said from her car as she waited for her ticket. But her daughter, Jennifer, was late to her job and Provett was trying to hurry.
Two FHP troopers were using a laser gun to check car speeds on the street, which typically has a lot of traffic going from Cortez Road to 53rd Avenue.
"Any of these streets that cut through, they fly," said FHP Capt. John Baumann.
Provett only got a warning for her speeding, but Jennifer got a ticket and a $52 fine for not wearing a seat belt.
All over the state, FHP troopers and local police are out enforcing "Click it or Ticket" during the Memorial Day weekend. Click it or Ticket is a national safety belt campaign through June 6, enforcing zero tolerance for not wearing a seat belt.
Baumann and fellow trooper George Alec were part of that effort. During the first half-hour of checking cars for speeding violations Sunday morning, Alec had written three seat belt violations for three cars he stopped. Baumann had written six citations, but only one for a seat belt violation. He said they were not trying to punish people, just save lives.
"Sometimes the only way to get their attention is to give them a citation," Baumann said.
Baumann and Alec said they hear all kinds of excuses for not wearing a seat belt like "it's stupid, didn't have time, it's not big enough, the car might catch on fire or the car might even go in the water, and the people wouldn't have time to get out."
"We have very few cars go in the water," Baumann said.
Maybe it's just too close to home and they don't think anything will happen, Alec said.
"Most accidents happen close to home," he said.
Last year during Memorial Day weekend in Florida, 46 people were killed in 41 traffic accidents, according to AAA Auto Club South. People not wearing seat belts are usually ejected from the car, Alec said. People wearing seat belts have some bruising during an accident, he said. "That seat belt will lock up."
Baumann said he doesn't understand why some people don't just put on the seat belts. It's habit for him every time he gets into the car.
"It doesn't take that long to take those two extra seconds to click it on."