COLUMBIA -- Rich Tierney of Greer thought his four children all understood the importance of buckling up until one night last June, when he got a call that his 16-year-old daughter had been in an accident.

She was with three friends, he said. None were wearing seat belts when their car collided with another. His daughter's head hit another girl's in the back seat, breaking bones around her eye.

"It was pretty scary," he said. "I think she's very much learned her lesson. But every time she goes out the door, I remind her, 'Put your seat belt on.'"

Other South Carolinians may be learning their lesson as well, according to the latest state safety figures.

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Traffic fatalities are down and seat belt usage in serious accidents is up following a new law that allows police to stop cars if they spot someone who's not buckled up.

From January through May 16, 264 people died in accidents with access to seat belts, according to the state Department of Public Safety. That's 66 fewer deaths than last year during the same time period. And the percentage of those deaths involving unbuckled victims has dropped from nearly 73 percent to 67 percent, according to the figures.

Max Young, director of the state Office of Highway Safety, said he believes the dip in fatalities is due in part to the new seat belt law.

"I am encouraged that the further we go with this new primary seat belt law, more people are going to comply with it," he said.

The law went into effect Dec. 9. Since then, Highway Patrol troopers have issued 42,510 seat belt tickets, compared with 14,785 during the same time last year, according to records provided by the Patrol. The number of tickets for improper child restraints also has increased during the same time frame, from 2,450 to 2,694, according to the Patrol.

About 70 percent of South Carolinians buckle up, according to Young, compared with the national average of 82 percent.

Nationally, about 55 percent of those killed in accidents don't wear seat belts, federal safety officials say, compared with South Carolina's current average of about 67 percent.

Troopers say while they are pleased with the dip, they don't know how much to credit the new law with the change. They said the percentage of those killed in accidents who were not wearing seat belts has dropped to as low as 40 percent in the past year during the time officials explained the new seat belt law to the public and after it was first implemented. But it has since inched back up, they said.

Lance Cpl. Dan Marsceau with the Highway Patrol's Greenville office, said he doesn't think the 6 percentage-point change in seat belt use can explain the drop in fatalities.

"Certainly, any improvement in the seat belt usage rate would be a welcomed improvement," he said. Lance Cpl. Josef Robinson, who works in the Patrol's Columbia office, said he thinks part of the decrease is due to the state's safety campaign.

"I don't think it's one particular thing," he said. "I think it's a combination of our new focus and mission to get the word out, how important it is for people to wear seat belts and buckle up."

One of the groups most resistant to buckling up has been teenagers.

According to state safety figures, 107 teens ages 13-19 were killed last year in accidents in which they had access to seat belts. Only 18 of the 107 were wearing seat belts.

South Carolina teens make up about 6 percent of all drivers in the state but are involved in about 13 percent of accidents, state safety records show. Sixteen-year-old drivers are four times more likely than adults to get in a wreck and three times as likely to die from one, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Robinson, who regularly talks to students about seat-belt safety, said some tell him afterward they will urge their friends to buckle up.

"We are asking teenagers to have the courage to tell their best friends, 'Buckle up or you don't go,' " he said. "That's what it takes. It takes courage to tell your best friend, 'I care enough about you for you to buckle up, regardless of how it may look or feel to you.' "

Lynn Tierney, now 17, who was in the wreck, said she has told her friends to buckle up.

"I buckle up all the time," she said. "I did before, too, but now I'm more aware of it, I guess."

Regarding the accident, the Riverside High junior said, "I think I might have taken it off because I was talking to the person in the front seat, but for some reason I didn't wear my seat belt right then and that's when we crashed. It was really weird."

Marsceau said the youth groups he talks to have some who are supportive of seat belts and others who seem to ignore the message.

"Most of my career, that's the way teenagers just are," he said. "But I have been to some groups of teenagers who have gotten behind the push to wear seat belts and encouraged their peers to do so."

Young said his office also is focusing on pickup drivers and drivers ages 18-34, two groups that traditionally have lower seat belt usage.

Nationally, the federal government will soon begin airing ads aimed at those in the 18- to 34-year-old category in an attempt to change the habits of an estimated 48 million Americans who don't buckle up, according to the National Traffic Safety Administration.

Other states that have changed to the same law now used in South Carolina also have experienced a drop in fatalities, according to the federal agency.

Illinois, for instance, saw traffic deaths fall to 60-year lows in 2004 following that state's adoption of a primary safety seat belt law, federal safety officials said.