The Seatbelt Sergeant campaign is part of the Bedfordshire and Luton Casualty Reduction Partnership's ‘Belt Up For Life’ initiative and is targeted at children aged seven to eleven in order to encourage them to buckle up when travelling by car and to nag their parents to do the same.

Although front seat belt wearing became compulsory in 1983, rear seat belt usage for children became compulsory in 1989 and for adults in 1991. Six per cent of car drivers still do not belt up along with 30 per cent of adults and seven per cent of children in the back of a car. Nationally 290 lives are lost annually through not wearing seat belts.

The campaign was launched by Gillian Parker Chief Constable Bedfordshire Police on Tuesday 31st March at Cauldwell Lower School in Bedford  where the Chief Constable along with Bedfordshire County Council Road Risk Advisory Team demonstrated the importance of seatbelt safety and swore in the children as school Seatbelt Sergeants.

As part of this campaign the Seatbelt Sergeants will receive a Warrant of Office Certificate and a warrant card.

The aim of the project is to generate interest from children about the importance of wearing seatbelts no matter the length of the journey. Studies have shown that whenever Road Safety Officers visit schools children will then go on to remind their parents of road safety issues.

In this latest campaign therefore, local PCSOs will be visiting schools along with Road Safety Officers, in order to gather a task force of Seatbelt Sergeants to keep the seatbelt safety message alive.
County councillor Tom Wootton said: "The importance of using seatbelts is well-known, but significant numbers of car users continue not to use them. Nationally 290 lives are lost annually through not wearing seat belts.
"We are using education as a means of encouraging children - who are after all the drivers of the future – to use seat belts at all times when travelling in cars and to pester their parents to do the same. The Seatbelt Sergeants are set to make Bedfordshire car drivers more seatbelt safety conscious and so help to save lives!"
Schools are free to arrange a visit from the PCSOs and Road Safety Officers who will swear in new Seatbelt Sergeants and encourage the schools to run competitions and road safety initiatives throughout the year, to keep the necessity of seatbelt usage at the forefront of everybody's minds.