Transportation and Public Works

Safety Belts Sept. 16, 2004

Thursday, September 16, 2004
Seatbelt message is elusive one
Editorial, The Guardian

Everybody knows that seatbelts save lives, but it's still shocking to look at just how many lives are lost because some people insist on not wearing them.

So far this year, there have been five deaths from passenger vehicle accidents in which people were not wearing seatbelts.

That's 24 Islanders in the last 30 months, who would very likely be alive today if they had taken a second to buckle up.

That's why we're encouraged to hear that P.E.I.'s Highways department is toughening up its approach to seatbelt enforcement. Under new measures being put forward by Transportation and Public Works Minister Gail Shea, people caught driving without seatbelts would earn demerit points. If they collect enough demerits, these people face the prospect of being banned from driving by a license suspension.

Shea is also talking about increasing the fines imposed on people who fail to use seatbelts. Right now the minimum fine for driving without a seatbelt is $50 but Highway's officials seem taken with the example of the province of Manitoba where it dealt with the seatbelt compliance rate by hiking fines to a minimum of $250 per offence.

If Islanders knew that four seatbelt violations would cost them $1000 and their driving privileges, odds are that they would be a little less cavalier about using seatbelts.

As it stands now, Prince Edward Island trails the national average for seatbelt use. Around 81 per cent of us buckle up regularly, compared to 85 per cent nationwide. But in some rural areas rate of seatbelt use is much lower, less than 60 percent.

The worst rate of seat belt use is among men under the age of 30 who own half-ton trucks. Apparently truck lovers have a belief that the size of their vehicle will protect them in a collision, but highway officials say that's a false belief. The safest place to be in a traffic accident is anchored in place, not tossed around loose. Once somebody has been thrown through a windshield it doesn't matter much if the windshield was in a Mack Truck or a Mini Cooper.

The fact is that seatbelts help people survive traffic accidents. Most of us acknowledge that fact and wear them. For too many people, though, survival isn't a strong enough motive to get them to buckle up. For them, Gail Shea is adding the strong incentive of fines and driving suspensions. We can only hope that the minister's actions scare a few more Islanders into protection their own lives, for both their sake and the sake of their families.