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Show What Does It Take? , By Senior Trooper ; : Terry C. Smith I Utah Highway Patrol, -; Section 10 Pl&E Officer . ; What does it take for motorists to understand the "necessity of wearing their seat belts? It's the law, but that doesn't does-n't make an impact. It can save your life, but that doesn't make an impact. ; In glancing through newspaper newspa-per articles in the Salt Lake Xribune and Deseret News this week, the following fatal crashes crash-es were reported: July 9: A 29-year-old Hurricane man was killed near Toquerville - unrestrained and ejected. July 13: Four Californians were killed and three critically injured near Tooele. Restraints were not used and six of the seven were ejected. Two of the critically injured were young children. July 13: A 65-year-old Kansas woman was killed near Hinckley - unrestrained and 1 ejected. Three other passengers were injured. July 14: A 20-year-old Ogden mad was killed on 1-15 - no seat belt worn. July 16: A 17-year-old Hurricane man was killed near Pintura - unrestrained and ejected. eject-ed. July 16: A 69-year-old 'Washington State man was filled near the Arizona border Jr(ear Kanab. He was unre-Istrained unre-Istrained and ejected. ,' July 17: An 8-year-old boy ;was killed in a rollover crash in jfie Salt Lake City area. He was unrestrained and ejected. ; That's 10 people in nine days. There were probably other crashes involving fatalities which I am not aware of and I don't know the facts of these crashes, but I would venture to , bet that most of these crashes were survivable, that if the victims vic-tims had been restrained, there would have been a good possibility possi-bility for survival. This year Section 10 officers have investigated eight fatality crashes within our section in iwhich 10 people were killed. In seven of the crashes, seven peo- pie were unrestrained, ejected, and killed. One victim was unrestrained, but not ejected and one of the fatality victims was a child who was not properly secured in a child restraint. In six of these crashes there were surviving occupants. It is a fact that using seat belts and child restraints increase your chances of survival sur-vival in serious crashes. So to those who don't wear their seat belts or put their kids in restraints, I ask why? Why do you continually take this unnecessary unnec-essary risk, putting you and your children at risk? Do you think it won't happen to you because .you're a good driver? You may !be a good driver, but how about ;the other guy on the road? Is it ;because you' re just driving ;around town, not on the free-way? free-way? Don't crashes occur off 'interstate highways? Th& financial impact of these Crashes and the loss of life ..should be incentive enough for anyone to do all they can to iensure their safety when travelling. travel-ling. No matter how good of a ;driver you are, no matter how far ;you're going, you can be involved in a crash. If you are, hopefully it will be very minor, but since you can't know when it may happen to you, always ; wear your seat belt and make sure your children are properly restrained. Your odds of survival sur-vival will be much greater. Throughout my years as a police officer I've heard every excuse imaginable why people ; don't wear their seat belts or ; properly restrain their children. Which excuse is going to be good enough when you are injured in a crash because you -; ; didn't wear a seat belt? Which - (See SEATBELTS on pg. 3) Seatbelts From Page 3A excuse are you going to use to justify the injuries to your child because you didn't restrain them? Or the unthinkable -which excuse will you use when your children die because you didn't restrain them? Editor 's note: In three recent potentially fatal rollovers in the Boulder area, occupants of all three vehicles who were wearing seat belts emerged uninjured. In a Sunday rollover accident north of Panguitch, the driver who was wearing a seat belt sustained sus-tained only minor injuries but his passenger, unbelted, was ejected and life-flighted with serious injuries The accident is pictured on the front page of today's Garfield County News. |