BREWER – Law enforcement and highway safety officials on Monday launched their most extensive campaign yet to encourage motorists and passengers to buckle up and improve Maine’s poor record of compliance with its seat belt law.

The Maine “Buckle Up – No Excuses” campaign is part of a national effort sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. More than 12,000 police agencies in 50 states will participate, including 78 municipal, county and state departments in Maine.

“It’s about saving lives, not writing more tickets,” Thomas Louizou, a regional administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said Monday.

Maine has a secondary seat belt law, which states that motorists who are 18 or older must be stopped for another violation or vehicle defect before a seat belt summons can be issued. That restriction does not apply to drivers under 18, who must always be belted.

The law is the only secondary traffic law in the state, which excludes the use of roadblocks for enforcement, Richard Perkins, director of Maine’s Bureau of Highway Safety, said Monday at a press conference in Brewer.

During the next two weeks, police agencies will step up enforcement efforts using federal funds to pay for officer overtime, except in Bangor, where officers will participate during regular duty hours. Every department taking part in the program will receive a radar gun, Perkins said.

In an effort to raise awareness, every motorist stopped during the period will be handed an information card about seat belts. Those who are stopped for other violations and are not wearing a seat belt may be issued a summons for that offense, which carries a fine of $62.

“We expect that a lot of verbal warnings will be given, a lot of citations will be given,” Perkins said.

The most recent survey of seat belt usage in Maine, conducted in 2002, showed a compliance rate of 59 percent, the nation’s third-worst rate and well below the national average of 79 percent, Perkins said.

“Some people think it’s a freedom of choice issue,” he said, citing reasons that 41 percent of Maine’s motorists fail to buckle up. “Most of [us] don’t think we’re going to be in a crash.”

The worst offenders in Maine are men ages 18 to 34 and adults over age 60, Perkins said.

The effort coincides with a three-week radio campaign in which $195,000 in federal funds is being spent at 44 Maine radio stations to air a 30-second public service announcement. The ads hit the airwaves May 17, and the enforcement effort began Monday.

If Maine’s seat belt use rate went up 10 percentage points, it would mean saving 14 lives a year, Louizou said. He pointed to the Carmel accident on Interstate 95 earlier this month that involved a rented Ford Explorer traveling at 103 mph. Seven people died.

Only two passengers, a woman and an 8-year-old child, were wearing seat belts, he noted.

Bangor Police Chief Don Winslow said his officers, along with a four-member team, will intensify enforcement efforts downtown, where traffic violations are more common.

“I think by now everybody knows that seat belts save lives,” he said Monday. “And remember, excuses won’t work.”

Those excuses range from forgetfulness to reliance on other safety devices, Patrol Sgt. Mark Desjardin of the Augusta Police Department said.

“You get a lot of, ‘Well, I’m in a hurry, I didn’t think of it, I’m just going to the store,'” he said. “One of the excuses I’ve heard lately is, ‘Well, I have air bags. Why do I need a seat belt?'”

NEWS intern Jackie Farwell contributed to this report.