Police across the state and nation have increased enforcement of seat belt use as part of the “Click It or Ticket” campaign.

A column last week on this issue resulted in this e-mail from Craig who writes: “Always the concern is that ‘seat belts save live in a crash.’

“But use of seat belts can prevent many crashes. If the driver is held in place to use the driving controls, many small incidents would be controlled, and the crash would not occur. Use of seat belts, by everyone in the vehicle, can prevent the crash as well as protect the wearer in a crash. Too many people think wearing seat belts is a ‘personal choice’ issue. Absolutely not.

“Anyone driving near me without wearing the seat belt is a significantly greater danger to me. … There are many of you who report on traffic, but none of you ‘get’ the real importance of belts!”

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I’m not sure what traffic reporters Craig is talking about, but this former traffic reporter never puts the car in gear without the seat belt in place first.

VRTs do more than escort

Andrew writes to correct me: “Your article is just wrong when you state the move to private companies providing the Bay Bridge escort service was to ‘allow the Transportation Authority police more time to do their job.’

“The escort service was never provided by the MdTA Police detachment at the bridge. It is provided by the Vehicle Recovery Unit at the bridge. Vehicle-recovery technicians [VRTs] assist with maintaining the traffic flow at the bridge by removing accident vehicles, disabled vehicles and debris from the road.

“There are only two VRTs working any given shift, and if they are in the middle of an escort when a disabled vehicle or accident occurs on the bridge, it could add a lot to their response time and cause a large backup on the bridge. … Perhaps the Bridge Authority could look into budgeting a less expense alternative [such] as hiring retired workers or a volunteer program to assist [who] would prevent the VRTs from being tied up providing the service.”

So noted, and I will try to be more accurate.

Questions, comments, random musings? Write to Steve@SprawlandCrawl.com.