You can live beyond '100 Deadliest Days'

It won't make it into law this year, but a bill passed by Senate committee shows legislative intent to put teeth in the state's seat-belt law.

With South Carolina having the third-highest death rate of any state in the nation, it's time.

The revised law would allow police to stop a motorist for not wearing a safety belt. The current secondary law forbids police from ticketing a person 18 or older for a seat-belt violation unless the motorist is pulled over for another reason. A person caught not wearing a seat belt would be fined $25 under the new law.

Approval of the Senate committee this week will mean little as there is no time between now and the end of the session in early June to see the legislation through to passage.

At least the debate about the bill and the focus on belt usage that comes with this week's Click It or Ticket enforcement campaign serve to reinforce the importance of seat belts during what authorities have come to call the "100 Deadliest Days.''

In a state where three people a day die in traffic crashes, the summer travel season is the deadliest. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, more people die than at any other time of year. There is a crash every 4.9 minutes somewhere in the state.

During the deadly days, the S.C. Department of Transportation is also calling attention to another source of tragedy on the highways -- crashes in work zones.

"Work zones require extra attention and care not just to protect highway workers, but for the safety of motorists as well," said Terecia Wilson, director of safety at SCDOT. "There were three work zone fatalities this past weekend in South Carolina and the victims in each case were motorists themselves traveling through the work zone.''

Each year across the nation, approximately 900 people are killed in roadway work zone accidents. More than 40,000 people are injured in work zone crashes annually.

Even if workers are not present, work zones can be dangerous because of lane shifts, the presence of construction equipment and other factors, Wilson said. "Motorists should expect the unexpected in a work zone.''

Expecting the unexpected is also what seat belts are about. There is no time to secure yourself with a belt before an accident and people are fooling themselves if they believe they can "hold on" or "brace themselves" during a crash.

Be careful in work zones. Wear seat belts (and tell lawmakers that stiffer laws aren't a test of commitment to individual rights). Live beyond the deadliest days.

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