One easy answer Promoting use of seat belts saves lives and money

One easy answer
Promoting use of seat belts saves lives and money

May 24, 2001

Americans obsess over every new study that suggests a possible threat to our health – no matter how implausible or statistically insignificant. There are, however, a few simple things that really will increase our chances of living to see old age. Wearing seat belts is near the top of that list.

That something so simple and effective is also so widely ignored is an embarrassing testament to human intransigence. Stranger still is why the rest of us continue to bear the cost of those who refuse to buckle up.

Monday, the National Safety Council released a report called "Mired in Mediocrity: A Nationwide Report Card on Driver and Passenger Safety." It looked at seat belt use, fatality rates and law enforcement, and assigned letter grades to the states.

With a seat-belt use rate of 65, Colorado got a C-minus. Nineteen states got either a D or an F. Only California got an A. Its rate of seat-belt use is 89 percent, up from 71 percent. That improvement reduced California fatalities by 34 percent.

The District of Columbia and 12 other states each got a B. All but one have "primary enforcement" laws – meaning that failure to wear a seat belt is in itself cause for police to stop and ticket a motorist. The study said those laws mean more people buckle up.

Some interesting comparisons were also presented. The U.S. seat belt use rate is 71 percent, and its traffic fatality rate for 1999 was 15 people per 100,000. In Canada, where 92 percent of people in cars buckle up, the fatality rate was nine per 100,000.

In that year, the council says, 9,553 fewer Americans would have died had they worn seat belts. Nonetheless, millions still ride around unbuckled every day.

They are risking more than their own lives. According to Louis DeCarolis, regional administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, inpatient hospital care costs for unbuckled crash victims are 50 percent higher than for those who wore seat belts – and that 85 percent of those costs are paid by society.

"Every American," says DeCarolis, "pays $580 toward the cost of crashes. If everyone buckled up, this figure would drop significantly." Raising the U.S. seat belt use rate to 90 percent, he says, would save Americans $8.8 billion annually.

That – and the thousands of lives involved – should more than justify a national effort to make buckling up second nature.