Colonel Kenneth L. Morckel
Superintendent
Ohio State Highway Patrol
The use of safety belts saves lives every day. The use of safety belts reduces injuries every day.
These two irrefutable facts are witnessed every day by Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers, emergency medical workers, and traffic safety experts throughout the United States, and are supported by statistics and the testimony of those saved.
Choosing to wear a safety belt is a personal decision, but it is a decision that affects others. The affected may be those in the car with you as you are ejected in a side impact collision. Possibly it will be other drivers approaching as you are slung to the passenger side of the car when you swerve to miss a deer on the roadway. More assuredly, it will be all of us who must endure higher insurance and medical costs as a result of your injuries or death in a motor vehicle crash. Absolutely it will be those who must live with your debilitating injuries or the painful memory of what could have been.
Personal decisions in a civilized society cannot be made in a selfish vacuum. Ohio’s safety belt compliance rate affects all of us.
Few people argue that crack cocaine possession and use, or tax evasion should be legal. These are choices which are available to be made, but as a society we agree that the cost is too high to allow these choices to be made.
I realize those are extreme examples, but I am using them to starkly illustrate that there are many choices available to us, but we should not have the freedom to make all of them. The cost of these choices far outweighs whatever benefit some people might think they are getting from making them.
On the opposite side of the coin, other, more dangerous choices are not prohibited. Riding a motorcycle is fairly dangerous and claims many lives. Mountain climbing, parachuting, and hang gliding are dangerous and kill quite a number of people too.
So, what is the difference between the freedom to engage in these activities and not wearing a safety belt? The answer leads to another question -- what benefit is there to not wearing a safety belt?
Is it exciting? Is it an exercise? Is it an adventure? Is it a learning experience? Is it a means to any end? No, there is absolutely no benefit at all to not wearing a safety belt.
There is a price, however, and that price is not solely paid by the unbuckled person killed in a crash. To some extent, we all pay. Some pay dearly -- ask someone who has lost a spouse or child to a traffic crash. Is it really right that such a petty freedom bear such a cost?
No. The cost far outweighs the benefit.
The motorist who does not buckle up is not some free spirit exercising his God-given right to liberty. That person is simply somebody who does not care enough to protect himself, his family, and the rest of us by performing the simple task of buckling a safety belt.
As we enter the final quarter of 2000, Ohio is considerably below the traffic fatality number as compared to the same time last year. In order to continue this positive trend, it is imperative safety belts continue to be worn by drivers and passengers alike. Still, too many of the fatalities on Ohio roads this year could have been prevented if the victim simply would have been wearing a safety belt at the time of the crash.
Safety belts save lives, reduce injuries, and save millions of dollars. On top of all that, safety belts can save the life of someone you know, or maybe even you. Make the safe choice and buckle up.