Primary seat belt law should be a priority

e-mail this story discuss this issue in our forums Guest column • Rep. Joel Lourie: Primary seat belt law should be a priority (06/30/03) • Thomas Bannister: We can't waste young people who are truants (06/29/03) • John Brumley: Developers should be required to include sidewalks (06/27/03) • Sen. Ernest F. Hollings: When will the public sit up and take notice? (06/24/03) • Danny Varat: Leadership in 2003 differed from campaign promises (06/23/03)

However, the bill is now scheduled on the Senate calendar and hopefully will get serious consideration when we return next January. Why does South Carolina need a primary seat belt law? The answer is very simple: because it will save at least 100 lives a year, prevent over 1,700 critical injuries and save millions upon millions of dollars in health-care and job-loss related costs.

First of all, by definition a primary seat belt law means a law enforcement officer can pull over a car if there are individuals not wearing a seat belt. In our state, we have secondary enforcement for people age 18 and older, which prohibits an officer from ticketing someone for not wearing a seat belt unless that person has been pulled over and is being charged with another offense such as speeding, etc.

For teenagers under 18, we do have primary enforcement, but you can imagine the burden of guessing we place on our law enforcement in deciding whether someone is 18 or older before pulling them over.

I think it is important for our citizens to know the facts before they decide how to weigh in on such an issue. South Carolina currently ranks 3rd in the nation when it comes to our highway fatalities per miles traveled, thereby making our highways some of the most dangerous in the United States. Each year, we experience approximately 1,000 highway fatalities (an average of 3 deaths a day), and of those related to traffic crashes, 66 percent of those killed are not wearing seat belts.

Our seat belt usage (the number of people actually buckled) is currently at 67 percent. Our neighboring states of North Carolina and Georgia, which both have primary seat belt laws, have respective rates of 84 percent and 79 percent. Both of these states experienced significant increases in their seat belt usage rates after the primary enforcement laws were passed.

National and state transportation experts estimate that within the first 18 months after the passage of a primary seat belt law, South Carolina would increase its seat belt usage between 8 percent and 12 percent, and save at least 100 lives a year. Can you imagine, 100 lives saved a year!

The success and the statistics of a primary seat belt law are undeniable and indisputable.

Another statistic that I find of striking importance is the impact this law had on fatalities in the state of Alabama. This state had a similar number of fatalities as South Carolina, and the fatality rate went down by 104 deaths the first year after the primary seat belt law was passed. Highway experts in that state can point to no other single initiative other than the seat belt law for this significant improvement.

How would this law affect the safety of our children? This one is a no-brainer. National statistics show that when a driver is buckled up, the children are buckled as well 94 percent of the time. This number plummets to 30 percent when the driver is not buckled up.

Who pays the cost when someone unbuckled is injured? We, the taxpayers are footing the bill. For the year 2000, there were 6,251 crash records of unbuckled occupants linked to hospital billing system records in South Carolina.

The total hospital charges for those injured were over $35 million dollars. Over 70 percent of these costs are paid through higher automobile and health insurance rates, as well as public assistance programs.

It is estimated that the total economic cost to South Carolina from unbelted crash victims for the 5-year period of 1997-2001 was over $3 billion dollars. This includes not only medical expenses, but loss of work and income as well.

The last point I would like to make relates to our current budget crisis. There are no funds available to put more troopers on the road or to seriously address the necessary maintenance backlog on our highways, all which would help in reducing our fatality rate. A primary seat belt law costs the taxpayers nothing, and will have a clear and strong impact in improving highway safety.

I have made my case and I appreciate your interest. The opponents of this bill claim that we don't need big brother government baby-sitting our citizens. They believe that each driver and passenger should have the right to buckle or not. But remember, our law currently says you must buckle; all we are trying to do is make it enforceable, and save 100 lives as well.

Please call your senator and state representative, ask for their support, and prevent 100 South Carolina families from unnecessary tragedy and grief.