Next month, Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) and the provincial police will be on the lookout for drivers not wearing their seatbelts – and getting caught may mean higher insurance rates for the offender.

With more than 4,700 tickets handed out last year to drivers and passengers for failing to buckle up, SGI is making seatbelt awareness its traffic safety focus for the month of February.

“We’re asking this month, what’s it going to take to make it click?” Tyler McMurchy, spokesman for SGI, told 620 CKRM. “We know most people do wear their seatbelts, the vast majority of people do [with] some estimates having it at over 95%. But the small number that don’t are highly over represented in traffic deaths.”

McMurchy explained that not wearing a seatbelt carries a fine of $175 for each person not restrained, in addition to being docked three demerit points - all of which may significantly increase an offender’s insurance premiums.

“If you are the driver of the vehicle, you are responsible for every passenger you have under the age of 16,” McMurchy told 620 CKRM. “So if you’re not wearing your seatbelt and you have a 14-year-old kid in the car and they aren’t wearing their seatbelt, that’s two separate tickets and three points under the safe driver recognition program.”