DRIVERS and passengers are being urged to belt up properly as part of a safety campaign.

The West Mercia Road Policing team will be stopping cars across the Kidderminster division to ensure people are wearing seatbelts correctly as part of a drive which ends on Sunday, November 3.

Over the last year nine people in the division have been injured through not wearing seatbelts, a statistic which Kidderminster Police traffic management officer PC Julian Turner said reflected a national trend of an increasingly "casual" attitude towards wearing them.

The law states seatbelts must be worn if fitted, and a driver can be prosecuted if a child passenger under 14 does not wear one.

There are also a set of rules relating to child restraints.

Police will be pressing home the message of how dangerous it is not to wear a belt in the back of a car - in a 30mph crash an unrestrained rear passenger will hit the front seat with a force of between 30 and 60 times their bodyweight.

Details about seatbelt safety are available from Kidderminster Police on 01562 820888.