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Article published: Aug 14, 2005
Get Belted
Car restraints make driving safer, but lots of people still aren't wearing them

Seat belts save lives. Child safety seats save lives. These statements are backed up by irrefutable statistical data. The law requires that every person riding in a car, van, recreational vehicle or truck wear a seat belt. This is an undeniable fact.

But people continue to drive around unbuckled and allow children to ride the roads unrestrained.

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among people age 44 and younger and the No. 1 cause of head and spinal cord injury, according to a James Madison University study. Approximately 35,000 people die in motor vehicle accidents each year. Experts estimate that about 50 percent — 17,000 — of these people could be saved if they wore their safety belts.

Seat belts have two primary purposes in a collision: to keep passengers from being ejected from the vehicle, and to keep them from colliding with hard objects inside the vehicle.

In a front-end collision, a second collision occurs as the car's occupants hit some part of the vehicle, the National Safety Council notes. At the moment of impact, unbelted occupants are still traveling at the vehicle's original speed. Just after the vehicle comes to a complete stop, these unbelted occupants will slam into the steering wheel, the windshield or some other part of the vehicle interior — or even into another person.

Wreck victims thrown from cars are 25 times more likely to die than ones who aren't, according to a recent Oklahoma State University study.

"There's no question that a seat belt saved my life," said Sen. John C. Land III, D-Manning, a long-time proponent of seat belt and child restraint laws in the state.

Land said he T-boned a car in 1987 that had run a red light. His car struck the other vehicle at 50 mph, but he escaped the wreck with only sore ribs — and celebrated his anniversary with his wife that night.
CAN YOU BE STOPPED?
Right now, drivers can be stopped if there is an unrestrained child in the vehicle. The offense is considered a "primary" one and carries a $25 fine. But police can charge a driver or passenger with violating the seat belt law only after they've stopped the driver for another offense. That fine is also $25.

Legislators strengthened the seat belt law this summer. Beginning Dec. 9, it becomes a primary offense, and police will be able to stop any car with unbelted occupants solely for that reason.

Local law enforcement officers say they welcome the stronger law.

"If an officer observes this violation, he or she should take the appropriate action," said Capt. Karl McClary of the S.C. Highway Patrol.

Sumter Police Chief Patty Patterson and Sumter County Sheriff Anthony Dennis said their officers issue citations and warnings for violations of the child restraint laws "because of the dangers children face if those vehicles were to get involved in an accident," Dennis said. "It's about safety, saving lives and protecting children who aren't old enough to make decisions for themselves," Patterson said.

So what does the law say?

South Carolina law requires that the driver and every occupant of every car and truck traveling on the road wear a seat belt. The driver is responsible for requiring each passenger 17 or younger to wear a safety belt or be secured in a child safety seat.

Drivers are not responsible for passengers older than 17 or those younger passengers who hold a driver's license, special restricted license or beginner's permit. They're on their own. It they're not buckled up, they'll be fined.
HONEY, BELT THE KIDS
Nearly everyone knows that babies are supposed to be strapped into a rear-facing car seat, but what about all the other kids? Some people don't seem to have a clue where their kids should ride — or how. Most drivers have seen babies on the laps of passengers, toddlers scrambling around on the back seat and first-graders sitting up front with Mom.

The laws about where kids can ride are fairly straightforward, but they can seem confusing, in part because not everyone agrees they're tough enough. And while most advocates agree that children should ride in safety seats, there are differences in opinion about how long they should stay there.

"Vehicle seat belts and air bags are designed for adults, not children," says Betsy Conner of Safe Kids Sumter County. Safe Kids Worldwide is a global network of organizations whose mission is to prevent accidental childhood injury, a leading killer of children 14 and under.

"Child safety seats — when correctly installed and used — reduce the risk of death by up to 71 percent for infants and 54 percent for children up to age 4," Conner said. "For children over age 4, booster seats reduce the need for hospitalization and death by 69 percent."

The seats can be complicated to install. And if they're put in incorrectly, they offer little protection and can even become a projectile in an automobile accident and hurt other people in the car.

"Car seats aren't any good unless they're secured by a seat belt," said Paramedic Sam Mitchum of Sumter County Emergency Medical Services. EMS paramedic Mary Holland agreed, noting that she sees a lot of safety seats that are not being held down by a seat belt.

Safe Kids says that a "staggering" 95 percent of all car seats are not installed properly or are inappropriate for the children using them. That's why child passenger safety is a "priority issue" for the local advocacy group. It conducts clinics throughout the year on how to properly install and use the seats. The next clinic will be held at Jones Chevrolet on Broad Street from 2-6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26. Parents should bring their children and the seats they're currently using.
"CAN I SIT UP FRONT?"
South Carolina law states that any driver transporting a child 5 years old and younger must provide an appropriate passenger restraint system. Here's what it considers appropriate:

A child from birth to 1 year or who weighs less than 20 pounds must be secured in a rear-facing child safety seat that meets the standards prescribed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

A child who is at least 1 but less than 6 and who weighs at least 20 pounds but less than 40 pounds must be secured in a forward-facing child safety seat that meets NHTSA standards.

A child who is at least 1 but less than 6 and who weighs at least 40 pounds but not more than 80 pounds must be secured by a belt-positioning booster seat. This booster seat must be used with both lap and shoulder belts.

If a child is at least 1 but less than 6 years of age and weighs more than 80 pounds, he may be restrained in an adult safety belt in the back seat.

Likewise, a child under 6 who can sit with his back straight against the vehicle seat back cushion, with his knees bent over the vehicle's seat edge, without slouching, may be seated in a regular back seat, secured by an adult seatbelt.

No child under 6 can sit in the front seat of a motor vehicle — unless the vehicle doesn't have rear seats or if all rear seats are occupied by other children under 6.

Children 6 and over can sit anywhere in a vehicle as long as they are secured by a seatbelt. But Safe Kids recommends that all children under the age of 12 ride in the back seat. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommend that children should stay in the back seat until they're 13.

"The front passenger seat is the most dangerous position in the car, and air bags only make it worse," Conner said. "The risk of death and injury is 40% higher just by sitting in the front seat."

Kids may groan about it, but Safe Kids strongly believes that children should stay in a belt-positioning booster seat with a shoulder belt until the regular seat belt fits them properly — usually, Conner says, when the child is age 8-10 or weighs 80 pounds or stands 4-foot-9.

The group offers a 5-step test for seat belt readiness:

1. Can your child sit all the way back into the seat with his hips pressed against the seat back?

2. Do his knees bend comfortably at the edge of the seat without him having to slouch?

3. Does the lap portion of the belt rest across the thighs and hip bones, not on the child's belly?

4. Does the shoulder portion cross the middle of the shoulder and not cut into the neck?

5. Can the child remain in this position for the entire trip without lying down or slouching?

And, Safe Kids says, you should never allow a child to place a shoulder belt under his arm or behind his back; serious injuries can occur to the abdomen, head, neck and spinal cord.
WHY SHOULD I BUCKLE UP?
Advocates of the state's tougher seat belt law say the measure will save lives.

S.C. Department of Public Safety statistics seem to support that contention. They show that 269 of 365 motor vehicle occupants who died in vehicle accidents between Jan. 1 and June 9 were not wearing seat belts.

Last year in Lee County, people who weren't wearing seat belts died in accidents at 10 times the rate as those who did. In Clarendon County, 7 percent of unbelted vehicle occupant died in wrecks as opposed to the less that one third of 1 percent who were wearing seat belts.

And in Sumter County, vehicle occupants who were not wearing seatbelts were 50 times more likely to die in an accident as those who were restrained. Only one 10th of 1 percent of belted occupants died in Sumter County accidents in comparison to the 5 percent of unrestrained occupants who perished.

"In a lot of cases, unbelted people are ejected," Donna Carter, state chairwoman for the South Carolina chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said in June. "A lot of injuries are sustained once the body leaves the car, and they're most of the time fatal."

Local paramedic Robert Hinges agrees. At a recent accident involving four people in a vehicle that rolled over, Hinges noted, "The people that were wearing seat belts lived. The ones that weren't didn't."

Holland said seat belt users are also less likely to get head injuries than non-users.

"They're good at preventing all types of injuries," said paramedic Mitchum of the safety belts.

So what do you do when the kids balk at having to wear one, or sit in a booster seat?

"Don't start the car unless your child is properly buckled up," says Conner. "Require seat belts on every ride, every time. If your child protests or squirms out, pull over and tell her that you cannot and will not continue until she is in her seat properly. Be consistent and do not negotiate! Be a role model."

And, she adds, "Children whose mothers wear seat belts are more likely to make safety in a car a habit in later years. This is even more true when fathers buckle up."

Back in June, Chief Patterson said that police could see people every day driving without being buckled up.

"Clearly (the strengthened law) would be a plus for law enforcement from the standpoint of ensuring the safety of the community that we serve," she said. "Because seat belts do save lives, seat belt usage should become a habit for people."

South Carolina is joining about 20 other states with primary enforcement of seat belt laws, according to MADD.

The law should save about 50 to 80 lives within the first year in South Carolina, said Max Young, who heads the SCDPS's Office of Highway Safety.

In other states that have enforced such laws, seat belt usage has gone up by about 10 percentage points, and statistics show that five to eight lives are saved for every percentage point increase in usage, Young said.

If the same holds true for South Carolina, seat belt usage should go up to 76 percent.

"That's what I'm hoping for, or even higher," Young said in June.

Contact Staff Writer Dave Cruz at dcruz@theitem.com or 803-774-1295.