Nearly 5,000 motorists across West Yorkshire were handed tickets for failing to wear seatbelts last year.
Now West Yorkshire Police has backed a week-long national campaign urging the public to ‘buckle up’ to prevent tragic consequences.
The warning comes as mother Sukhi Atwal released harrowing footage of the crash which killed her 12-year-old son when he wasn’t wearing a seat belt.
Schoolboy Amar Atwal died after he was thrown from the vehicle in West Bromwich, West Midlands in May last year.
West Yorkshire Police hopes by educating drivers of the dangers further deaths could be avoided.
Sgt James Farrar from West Yorkshire Police said: “If you are in a collision you are twice as likely to die if you are not wearing your seat belt. Often people not wearing a seatbelt could be thrown from a vehicle during a collision and receive serious or fatal injuries.
“We see people every day driving around West Yorkshire not wearing a seat belt. In some cases, these people also aren’t buckling up their children too which is a huge cause for concern.”
Figures show last year West Yorkshire Police issued 4,835 tickets for seatbelt offences, 547 of which were in Kirklees and 66 in Calderdale.
Of those offences 300 were for failing to secure children correctly.
