One week after law-enforcement agencies across the state began enforcing new legislation mandating the use of safety belts, Vicksburg police had issued more than a dozen citations to violators.

&#8220I think, right now, a lot of it is about awareness on the law change,” Deputy Chief Richard O’Bannon said. &#8220Hopefully, as people become more aware of it, they will buckle up. This new law is definitely a step in the right direction.”

Mississippi’s new primary-offense seat belt law went into effect May 27. It allows officers to stop cars when drivers, front seat passengers or children younger than 8 anywhere in the vehicle are not wearing safety belts. Violators can be fined $25 per vehicle.

Nineteen citations had been issued by Vicksburg police, O’Bannon said. The number of citations issued by the Warren County Sheriff’s Department and Mississippi Department of Public Safety were not available.

&#8220Our agency did not, over the Memorial Day weekend, set up road blocks for that or any other purpose,” Sheriff Martin Pace said. &#8220Our data is kept on a monthly basis, and statistics are not available” for May 27-June 2.”

O’Bannon praised the new legislation, saying that forcing motorists to wear safety belts will save lives.

&#8220I’ve seen more fatal accidents in which wearing seat belts would have made a difference,” he said. &#8220It doesn’t have to be that big of an accident for someone to lose their life.”

In 2005, 491 wrecks were reported in Warren County, with 17 fatalities, 10 incapacitating injuries and 10 non-incapacitating injuries.

Vicksburg police, O’Bannon said, are conducting road blocks and writing tickets to people who do not buckle up. He also said he has &#8220pulled up beside people and told them to put on their seat belt.”

&#8220I tell them about the new law, and they usually say, ‘Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.’”.

The new law coincides with the Click it or Ticket campaign, which began May 22 and ends today. It is a national campaign that includes more than 12,000 state and local law enforcement and highway safety officials, and aims to crack down on violators and reduce highway fatalities. The enforcement campaign consists of safety checkpoints, call-back details and saturation patrols.

Gov. Haley Barbour signed the bill in February, making Mississippi the 22nd state to enact the primary seat belt law. Under the previous state law, an officer could issue a ticket for failure to wear a seat belt, but the officer would need a probable cause, such as speeding, for stopping the vehicle.

Of the 931 wreck fatalities reported in Mississippi in 2005, 573 were related to non-use of restraint devices, according to information from the Mississippi Highway Patrol. They found people 15 to 24 are least likely to wear safety belts.

According to datat from the MHP, Mississippi has the second lowest safety belt use rate in the nation, at 60.8 percent. New Hampshire has no law for safety belts and a use rate of 50 percent. The national safety belt use rate is 82 percent, and the Southeast average is 76.8 percent. Nearly 62 percent of the U.S. population is now covered by primary laws.