In response to Darron Justice’s July 25 lament regarding our state’s law enforcement community cracking down on drivers who do not wear seatbelts (“Seatbelt use: Let’s crack down on bad drivers instead”), I would like to offer this. Darron suggests that it costs too much to have officers stop and ticket drivers who are not belted. Nothing could be further from the truth. The inpatient hospital cost to treat an unbelted crash victim is at least 50 percent higher than those for belted victims. And society pays 85 percent of the costs, not the drivers involved. Americans pay $14.3 billion per year in injury related costs for people who do not wear seatbelts. The injured driver pays less than 30 percent of the total cost. The remainder is paid by the rest of us through higher automobile and health insurance taxes and through public assistance programs funded with federal and state taxes. These statistics were gathered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The most compelling reason to enforce the use of seatbelts has to be the number of deaths to children who are not buckled. Adults who do not wear seat belts do not ensure that their passengers, especially children, are buckled. In 2000, 56 percent of kids rode unrestrained. Car crashes are the No. 1 killer of children ages 0 to 14 in the United States. In 1999, 1,684 children died as a result of motor vehicle crashes nation wide and 248,000 were injured. This number could be dramatically reduced with increased seat belt use.
I applaud our lawmakers for making seatbelt use a priority and our law enforcement officers who stop you to save the lives of you and your children.
While Darron may have been a victim of an “injustice” by being ticketed for not wearing his seatbelt, at least he arrived home safely buckled and was able to write his coherent letter to the editor. Please buckle up.
Community Education Director
Snohomish Fire &Rescue
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