Walking Away--Safe: Pushed by personal tragedies and heartbroken constituents and sometimes by the federal government, legislatures are working to prevent motor vehicle injuries.

• Author: Savage, Melissa A.
• Position: Statistical Data Included

Just about every American adult knows what they should be doing to fend off such things as cancer and heart disease. Eat broccoli, exercise aerobically, stay out of the sun. But there's something else they should be doing to live longer, something simple and easy that can dramatically reduce the chances of an early death.

Buckle up!

Every 13 seconds, someone in America dies in a car accident and 52 people are disabled. Motor vehicle wrecks take about 41,000 lives and account for 2.2 million disabling injuries every year. About half of those killed are under the age of 35. Many survivors are seriously disabled by traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries.

Most people believe that injuries happen by chance and cannot be prevented. But the truth is that most crash injuries and deaths are caused by behaviors that are predictable and preventable, such as not wearing seat belts or driving drunk. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says motor-vehicle related deaths and injuries are as much a public health problem as cancer and heart disease. In its recently issued Healthy People 2010 initiative, the department says the overall health of the country can be improved by reducing the number of unintentional injuries, specifically those caused in crashes. How? By getting people to use seat belts and child safety seats, by creating stricter licensing for older and teen drivers and by increasing penalties for drunk drivers.

TRAFFIC SAFETY BIG IN LEGISLATURES

Nudged by personal tragedies or heartbroken constituents and often by the federal government, state lawmakers have considered more than 5,000 bills regarding traffic safety in the last five years. They've tried to increase seat belt use, deter drunk driving, protect child passengers and safeguard pedestrians. States considered nearly 1,300 bills in 18 key traffic safety areas this year alone.

Of interest to many lawmakers is the economic side of motor vehicle crashes. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates it costs the country $181.5 billion a year in the form of property damage, lost productivity and medical expenses. These numbers do not include the cost of pain and suffering or the nonmonetary value of life. Each death costs society $970,000, while each disabling injury costs $35,300 according to figures from the National Safety Council. If a measure of the value of lost quality of life is factored in, each death costs society $3.1 million, and each incapacitating injury $153,000.

SEAT BELT USE PAYS DIVIDENDS

If everyone just used a seat belt, an estimated 9,550 lives would be saved and 50,000 disabling injuries each year would be avoided. A combination of legislation, police efforts and public awareness campaigns have resulted in a growth of seat belt use from only 11 percent in 1980 to 49 percent by 1990 to 73 percent in 2001. An estimated 80,000 lives have been saved between 1982 and 1999.

But should it be against the law not to wear a seat belt? Today, lawmakers are trying to decide if drivers should be stopped and ticketed if they aren't buckled up. It's called "primary" enforcement and it is much more intrusive on a citizen's personal rights than the first seatbelt laws passed some 20 years ago. Then, lawmakers were hesitant to penalize drivers for not wearing seatbelts because they weren't sure they should be meddling in their constituents' private lives. Seat belt violations became secondary offenses, and drivers were ticketed only when they committed another offense.

But...