State is buckling up more
7/17/2008 11:54 PM   0 comment(s) on this story E-mail this story to a friend



By KAREN DAILY

Staff writer

A study released earlier this week shows a record number of South Carolina motorists have heeded the warnings of Public Safety officials and are buckling up at a rate of 79 percent, but the significant minority not paying attention are paying with their lives.

As part of the Buckle Up South Carolina (BUSC) campaign that ran from May 19 to June 1, the state's Department of Public Safety commissioned the University of South Carolina survey to gauge the effectiveness of the seat belt initiative.

The safety belt usage in the Palmetto State still lags behind the national safety belt usage rate of 82 percent.

In South Carolina the rate had been on the rise for three years in a row, having topped 70 percent each year, and fatalities in the state are down by 79 deaths this year, from 584 lives claimed through mid-July of last year to 505 this year.

In Aiken County, the number is down five this year, from 24 in mid-July to 19.

But there is a flip side to the news.

Eighty percent of those killed across the county so far this year had access to seat belts but didn't wear them.

Sixty-four percent of those killed across the state this year had access to seat belts but didn't wear them.

Jason Griffin, a member of Aiken Public Safety's HEAT (Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic) said law enforcement has been ramping up efforts for a number of years to enforce seat belt usage.

The two officers on the HEAT team are dedicated to traffic enforcement. Still, they see a significant number of motorists refusing to buckle up.

When Griffin ticketed a driver earlier in the week for a seat belt violation, he looked over in her passenger seat and spotted that she already had one.

"She said she got it from the highway patrol and that she was just not going to wear a seat belt," he said.

Her stubborn streak will cost her $25 every time she is caught without a belt.

The state numbers from the study recorded drivers and passengers in compliance with the seat belt law only when they were using a shoulder-style safety belt.

Local officers are finding a number of motorists tucking the shoulder strap behind the seat or behind the back.

"They are going to get a ticket for that," Griffin said, explaining that the seat belts are designed to work with both the lap and shoulder straps.

Contact Karen Daily at kdaily@aikenstandard.com

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