There's little excuse for not buckling seat belts

It happens all too often in rural America, deaths of young people in motor-vehicle accidents, which are largely preventable.

Perhaps it stems from a sense of isolation; when living in the middle of nowhere, the rules don't apply to you. Perhaps it's a sense of personal liberty: "The government's not telling me I have to wear a seat belt."

It's impossible to know why people do what they do. About all we're certain of is the profound heartbreak of spouses, parents, siblings and other loved ones when promising young lives end prematurely. The loss of nine people at once, such as Utah State University's College of Agriculture is coping with, is unfathomable.

Rarely are so many people killed in a single-car crash. But the odds were stacked against those young men and their instructor. They were traveling in a 15-passenger van, a vehicle prone to rollover accidents if improperly loaded and driven too fast. According to the Utah Highway Patrol, the van was traveling at a grossly excessive speed — 95 to 100 mph. No one was wearing a seat belt, although families of the two young men who survived the crash say body bruises rebut the official reports.

What do we take away from all of this?

We can't fight human nature. Sure, we can pass laws to regulate the speed and institute policies that require people to wear seat belts. We could even pass a primary seat-belt law, which means officers could cite adult drivers for not wearing their seat belts. Utah has a secondary law, which allows police to issue a seat-belt citation only if the adult driver is stopped for another infraction.

The good news, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, is that seat-belt use nationwide reached a record 82 percent this year. Experts credit public awareness such as the high-profile "Click It or Ticket" media campaigns, more enforcement and the adoption of primary seat-belt laws for the increases in seat-belt use.

As for the nearly 20 percent of drivers not complying with seat-belt laws, what can be done about them? The evidence that supports the use of seat belts is irrefutable. Arguments such as seat belts mussing one's clothes or trapping drivers in a burning car are specious. Wrinkled clothes can be pressed. Despite what we see in the movies, precious few automobiles go up in flames as the result of a traffic accident. More education is needed.

More difficult to contend with are people who view wearing seat belts as an issue of personal liberty. Some say laws that require people to wear seat belts are "un-American." Tell me, what's so un-American about saving lives?