Kansas getting better at buckling up

seatbeltLook at it as an affirmation that individual responsibility works. Or maybe it points to the lifesaving good a primary seat-belt law for adults could do for Kansas. In any case, authorities link the state’s 15-year low in traffic fatalities last year — 404, down from 468 in 2006 — to what’s reported as a 75 percent driver usage rate for seat belts. That rate still lags the nation’s 82 percent, but is 14 percentage points higher than Kansas’ 2002 rate. Sedgwick County’s usage rate was an impressive 80 percent last year, up from 59 percent in 2002. Whatever their reason for better buckling, Kansans should keep it up. As Pete Bodyk, traffic safety chief for the Kansas Department of Transportation, told the Topeka Capital-Journal: “The single most effective thing is to protect yourself and pay attention. Wear a seat belt, and make sure all your passengers are wearing seat belts.”

5 Comments

  1. Regular
    Posted January 14, 2008 at 8:55 am | Permalink

    It’s automatic for me to buckle up. I would not move my car an inch without my seat belt on.

  2. Ophelia Cagel
    Posted January 14, 2008 at 9:11 am | Permalink

    Proof that relentless government heckling works; now what if we had similar programs urging people to give up bad habits and adopt good ones. Would our health care crisis evaporate if we spent a few nickles on advertising? Remember, in backwards countries problems with food born diseases have almost dissapeared with similar efforts. Lleve sus manos!

  3. J R
    Posted January 14, 2008 at 9:24 am | Permalink

    Ya wanna make driving safer make the idiots get off their cell phones.

  4. Max
    Posted January 14, 2008 at 11:36 am | Permalink

    Wow! Public Edgeecashun is finally workin!

    Give dem teechers a big raise!

  5. JWink
    Posted January 14, 2008 at 8:32 pm | Permalink

    I heard on the radio recently … driving while talking on a cell phone is the equivalent to driving in a drunken stupor.

    That is very apparent to me.

    So why is government NOT going after these clear and dangerous accidents-waiting-to-happen? Is it because the lawmakers are the worst violators?

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