ST. PAUL — The message is clear: A seat belt is essential to safe driving. That’s a given for 95.2 percent of Minnesotans, according to last year’s observational seat belt survey. The tragedy is that nearly 20 percent of all people who died on Minnesota roads last year missed that message and were not wearing a seat belt. 

To save lives and raise awareness, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) coordinated a 20-day extra traffic enforcement and awareness campaign using funds from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). 

The campaign revealed concerning behaviors on our roads. In one traffic stop, a child was found not buckled or in a car seat and was able to remove a firearm from a diaper bag. In another, none of the six people in a vehicle was wearing a seat belt. 

“Wearing a seat belt saves lives. It protects everyone in the vehicle, and it makes it possible to walk away when the unexpected happens,” said OTS Director Mike Hanson. “That’s why it is so frustrating to see how many people are still lost to deadly crashes because they didn’t wear a seat belt. Drivers and passengers, don’t take the risk. Your life and the lives of your passengers matter and are worth the two seconds it takes to wear a seat belt.”

Officers targeted seat belt usage and child passenger safety during the campaign. In total, the campaign had 290 participating law enforcement agencies in Minnesota. Officers reported issuing 2,454 seat belt citations and 163 child restraint citations as part of the extra enforcement.

Agencies with the highest number of citations can be found below or on the full list of reports on the OTS website.

Most citations issued for seat belt and child restraint violations

Metro agencies

• Saint Paul Police Department: 505
• Minnesota State Patrol
  • West Metro: 274
  • East Metro: 136
• Richfield Police Department: 59
• Woodbury Police Department: 42

Greater Minnesota agencies 

• Minnesota State Patrol 
  • Virginia: 177
  • Duluth: 141
  • St. Cloud: 126
  • Rochester: 79
• Mankato Department of Public Safety: 71

Buckle up: It’s the law

The law requires drivers and passengers to wear seat belts, and law enforcement can stop and ticket drivers and passengers for failing to buckle up. Seat belts should be worn tight and across the hips or thighs. Belts should never be tucked under the arm or behind the back.

Updated in 2024, Minnesota’s child passenger safety law also outlines requirements for car seats, booster seats and seat belts based on the child’s age, height and weight. Children must remain in a rear-facing car seat until at least age 2 and have outgrown the rear-facing seat with the harness by height or weight. After outgrowing a rear-facing car seat, children should use a forward-facing car seat with a harness before transitioning to a booster seat. Children must remain in a booster seat until they are 9 years old or until they have outgrown the booster seat and pass the five-step test. Children under 13 must ride in the back seat if possible. 

Resources

Additional seat belt and passenger safety information is available online:

• BuckleUpMN.org has seat belt information for employers and educators.
• DriveSmartMN.org has summaries of Minnesota law and passenger safety advice.
• Visit BuckleUpKids.dps.mn.gov for specific information on child passenger safety.