FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS

For the last six months, police have issued warnings to motorists who failed to use seat belts as required by state law. Beginning today, tickets will be issued for those who refuse to buckle up. This, despite protests about individual rights and choices, will save lives and money.

Maine long had a secondary enforcement law for seat belts. That meant that seat belt use was required but drivers could not be stopped for failing to buckle up. If they were stopped for another violation, such as speeding, they could be given a ticket for not wearing a seat belt as well.

Maine has long had one of the lowest rates of seat belt use in the country, prompting lawmakers last year to elevate the state’s restraint law to a primary enforcement law, meaning drivers could be stopped for not wearing a seat belt. For six months, officers issued warnings to ease people into the stricter standard. Today, they will start writing tickets. First-time violators can get $50 tickets with fines rising for subsequent violations.

Car crashes is the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 15 and 35. In fatal car crashes in 1995, only 2 percent of restrained passengers were ejected, compared to 25 percent of unrestrained passengers. Three-quarters of occupants who are ejected from cars are killed. Unbelted drivers and passengers are more than twice as likely as seat belt wearers to suffer a traumatic brain injury. They are nearly twice as likely to require hospitalization as seat belt wearers.

As a result, medical treatment for non-seat belt wearers costs more. A study of 371 motor vehicle trauma patients at Eastern Maine Medical Center between January 1991 and July 1994 found that the average hospital charges for unbelted patients were $9,515 higher than for those wearing seat belts. Unbelted accident victims were nearly twice as likely to be uninsured or covered by Medicaid than those who wear seat belts. That translates into higher medical and insurance costs for everyone.

The Maine Bureau of Highway Safety estimates that the new law, and its enforcement, will save 10 lives and avoid 155 serious injuries per year. This will save the state’s taxpayers about $33 million in medical expenses, property damage, lost productivity and related costs. Reduced medical costs are due in part to the fact that participants in the state’s public health care program, MaineCare, and the uninsured are more likely to be unbelted, and therefore injured in a crash.

According to the bureau, seat belt use among front seat occupants has risen from about 60 percent in 2003 to nearly 80 percent last year. The national average is 82 percent. States with primary enforcement laws generally have higher seat belt usage than states without.

Drivers have had ample time to adjust to and abide by Maine’s seat belt law so the penalties that begin today should come as no surprise.