Utah gets a "caution" grade from a freeway safety watchdog group.

The group, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, released a report card Thursday in Washington, D.C., titled "2006 Road Map to State Highway Safety Laws: Players, Politics and Progress." It ranked each state based on its driving laws.

The group's third annual report was based on 14 laws the group determined to be "essential and life-saving" and that each state should have. The laws deal with items such as teen driving, drunken driving, seat belts, motorcycle helmets and child seats.

Each state was given either a green, yellow or red rating based on how many of the 14 laws it has in effect, with more weight being given to primary seat-belt laws.

While Utah scored well for having strict DUI laws, sobriety checkpoints, strict penalties against repeat offenders and for having certain graduated driver license laws, the group said the Beehive State was still lacking a primary seat-belt law, a law requiring booster seats for children up to age 8, a mandatory helmet law for motorcyclists and a graduated driver's license provision putting restrictions on nighttime driving for some drivers.

A primary seat-belt law would allow police to pull over drivers simply for not buckling up. Utah currently has a secondary seat-belt law meaning a driver can be cited for not wearing a seat-belt only if pulled over for another offense. Utah does have a primary seat-belt law for motorists 19 years old and younger.

Efforts to pass both a mandatory seat-belt law for adults and a mandatory motorcycle helmet law in the Utah Legislature have been unsuccessful several times in years past.

Even without a primary seat-belt law, however, Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Jeff Nigbur said the latest studies showed seat-belt usage in Utah was in the high 80th percentile.

As far as Utah getting high marks for its DUI enforcement, Nigbur said that didn't surprise him.

"That's one of our priorities for the Utah Highway Patrol. That's why we have a DUI squad," he said.

But Nigbur said there was only so much the laws and law enforcement could do. Some responsibility has to be taken by motorists.

"People need to drive smart. That includes slowing down, not driving aggressively and not driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs," he said. "Generally speaking, we do have pretty safe highways, but we always have room for improvement."

In 2004, there were nearly 54,000 crashes in Utah resulting in more than 29,000 injuries and 296 deaths, according to the Utah Highway Safety Office's most recent statistics.