Austin Police is using city buses to catch people not wearing their seat belts. (Photo: CBS Austin)

Austin Police officers are using city buses to catch people not wearing their seat belts.

In an morning similar to a hands-free operation, Austin Police officers rode a city bus Wednesday to catch people not wearing their seat belts. Officers on the bus would see a person without a seat belt, and then officers on the road would pull drivers over.

“To try and make people aware of the dangers of driving without a seat belt,” APD Officer Mike Barger said.

Barger said they got a $79,000 TxDOT grant to pay for the operation as a part of the “Click it or Ticket” campaign. He says it’s the first time they’ve used this kind of operation for seat belt enforcement. They’ll have three more during the campaign with another on Friday, May 31 and June 2.

“The dangers of being injured in a crash at low speeds are significantly increased by not wearing a seat belt,” Barger said.

Sgt. David McDonald also rode the bus to catch drivers. He’s had first-hand experience of the dangers when his wife was thrown out of her vehicle when she took off her seat belt briefly in 2007.

“Someone ran a red light and she got ejected out of our vehicle because she wasn’t wearing a seat belt,” McDonald said. “Finding my own wife in the street bleeding profusely, I can’t get those images out of my head.”

While they were out, though, they didn’t ignore drivers on their cell phones. In fact, they may have pulled more people over for texting on talking on the phone.

The two laws have drawn parallels in this year’s Texas Legislature. Particularly from the statewide texting and driving ban bill author Tom Craddick.

“You know seat belts did it, they worked and 95 percent of the people obey the law,” Craddick said on May 19.

Craddick has made the comparison several times saying there was opposition for seat belt laws in the past, but now people obey it. He says that will be the same for texting and driving as well.

Barger went further, comparing drunk driving laws to texting and driving laws.

“We’re kind of in the infant stages of evolution when it comes down to enforcing those laws,” Barger said.

McDonald hopes some day people will put down their phones as much as they put on their seat belts.

“I hope so, because I do know we have over 90 percent compliance rate with seat belts, it’d be nice to see that with cell phones as well,” McDonald said.