TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Tallahassee is trying to keep people safe on the roads.
The city commission unanimously approved a $50,000 grant to promote seat belt safety on Wednesday.
"We've seen a lot of crashes in our community as of late," City Commissioner Curtis Richardson said.
The Tallahassee Police Department reports since the beginning of 2020, there were 284 crashes where people weren't wearing a seat belt.
TPD is trying to change this with the new approved grant by the city of Tallahassee commission.
The money will go to pay for overtime expenses to educate and enforce seat belt safety.
"It's a straight grant for the purposes of keeping our motoring public and in some incidents our pedestrians safe," Richardson said.
Tallahassee is number 13 out of 34 cities in Florida for high rates of people not wearing a seat belt in the state.
The money is part of a $36 million federal grant through National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to improve road safety in Florida.
FDOT spokesperson said in an email this federal grant is "an effort to receive zero fatalities" with crashes.
