Cops: Two arrests and nearly 200 tickets through seatbelt enforcement checkpoints
Riverhead Town police ticketed nearly 200 people for seatbelt and other traffic violations and caught a drunk driver and a person wanted on an arrest warrant through a roughly two-week-long enforcement operation in Riverhead Town, police said.
The checkpoints ran from May 20 to June 2 as part of “Buckle Up New York – Click it or Ticket,” a campaign to crack down on drivers not wearing seatbelts across the state.
Thanks to the checkpoints, police issued 83 summons for seatbelt violations, three summons for child restraint violations, and 98 tickets for other traffic offenses, according to a police report.
Police also arrested a drunk driver through the checkpoint, though information about the arrest wasn’t immediately available.
On May 30, police arrested Rovilio Garcia-Lopez at a checkpoint. He had an active arrest warrant from Southampton Town police, and was turned over to that department, Riverhead police said.
In total, police issued more than 170 seatbelt violations, nine child restraint offenses and nearly 325 other vehicle and traffic violations, from uninsured and unregistered vehicles to unlicensed drivers and drivers on their cell phones.
The department will continue to participate in the state’s Selective Traffic Enforcement Program through the summer to lower traffic accidents and fatalities by stepping up enforcement against aggressive drivers.
