If you are doing any travelling this long weekend, provincial police are hoping you will remember to buckle up.
The OPP will hold a seat belt blitz on area highways. The Easter Spring Seat Belt Campaign is an annual province-wide initiative by the OPP to crack down on those not complying with seat belt laws.
"Every officer, their focus will be on seat belt enforcement," says OPP Sergeant Dave Rektor. "That is going to be a priority for those who are working this weekend and we're certainly staffed to do that well."
Rektor says there will be a zero tolerance policy for seat belt violations this weekend, but officers will also focusing on education people who aren't buckled up.
"Enforcement is one component, but there's also the education part of it," says Rektor.
Statistics show that males are four times more likely than females to not buckle up, which Rektor suggests is due to some people feeling "invincible." He adds there is no valid reason for anyone to not wear a seat belt.
Rektor says people who do comply with seat belt laws need to lead by example.
"It's just very important that everybody, passengers as well as drivers, always buckle up. It sets an example for each other and for younger kids," says Rektor. "It shows them that everybody gets buckled up when you are in a car and there are no exemptions."
According to the OPP, in the past five years 332 people have died in crashes on OPP-patrolled roads in which the lack of seat belt use was a factor. Of those, 271 were males and 71 were females.
**This story was written by Kayley Leon, a student in the Media, Theory, and Production program at Western University. Kayley is currently performing an internship with BlackburnNews.com**