Seat belts save lives
There are no comments for this page [ Add Comment ]Thursday, September 6, 2007
This is what you need to know about teens who drive or ride in the car with their friends who are driving:
* Drivers are 17 times more likely to die in a car accident if they are not wearing a seat belt.
* Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among 15- to 19-year-old Americans, including Utahns.
* In Utah, 73 percent of female teens wear seat belts.
* In Utah, 67 percent of male teens wear seat belts.
These numbers, taken in the aggregate, are frightening. We're pretty sure everyone knew the bottom line already, but it bears repeating: Teenagers are dying on Utah roads who would not be dying if they were wearing their seat belts every time they got into a vehicle.
Kids being kids, some of them just don't get it. They hear the driver's ed instructors beating the drum about seat belts. They hear their parents pleading with them to wear seat belts. They even hear stories about acquaintances being injured -- or worse -- in accidents. Then they climb into the car, oblivious, and don't buckle-up.
We have to figure out a way to turn this around. And by "we," we mean all responsible adults in the Beehive State. While we agree that parents and the young drivers themselves bear the most responsibility, we're fans of inviting the long arm of the law in as back-up. The state Legislature has consistently stood on a questionable philosophical principle regarding seat-belt laws: It's OK to punish kids under 18 who don't buckle up, but adults get to make up their own minds.
All this does is not-so-subtly inform teen drivers that wearing seat belts really isn't that important: Hey, if Mom and Dad don't have to, why do I?
As we've said in this space time and time again over the years, seat belt use is not simply an issue of personal choice. It is a matter of public policy, since everyone is impacted by the choices of people who choose not to wear seat belts. Their irresponsibility results in higher insurance premiums, more expensive services -- police, ambulance and fire -- and damage to public infrastructure.
And then there's the matter of saving people's lives: Believe it or not, there are people -- teens and adults -- who will buckle-up and save their own lives only because they don't want to get a ticket. Call us lovers of Big Government if you will, but we think mandatory seat belt laws for all drivers, regardless of age, is not only the prudent thing to do, but the moral thing to do.
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