Reactions highlight public acceptance of seat belts

Thirty years ago, if a traffic accident resulted in serious injury or death, hardly anyone asked about seat belts. When Gov. Corzine was critically injured in a crash last week, just about everyone did.

And while the answer was "apparently not" - the governor's injuries likely would have been far less severe if he had been restrained by a seat belt - just the fact that multitudes wanted to know is testament to the public acceptance that seat belts have achieved.

"Today it is the norm to wear your seat belt," Michele J. Mount, spokeswoman for the AAA New Jersey Automobile Club, said yesterday.

The use of restraints has saved an estimated 135,000 lives in the last 26 years, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

New York became the first state to mandate the wearing of seat belts, in December 1984. New Jersey was second, a few months later.

Pennsylvania enacted a seat belt law in November 1987. Only New Hampshire has no law for adults, and a bill is working its way through the legislature, the NHTSA said.

Early resistance to wearing seat belts, and later seat and shoulder belts, gradually waned, and an estimated 81 percent of drivers and front-seat passengers nationally used them in 2006, the NHTSA said.

New Jersey's rate was 90 percent, eighth-highest in the nation. Pennsylvania recorded 83 percent in 2005, the latest figure for that state.

Seat-belt legislation comes in two main types: Primary enforcement laws (like New Jersey's), mostly enacted in recent years, authorize police to write a ticket if they observe an unbelted driver or passenger. Secondary laws (like Pennsylvania's) allow a summons only if the driver is stopped for another infraction.

In states with primary laws, 85 percent of drivers and front-seat passengers wore shoulder belts in 2006, according to an NHTSA survey, vs. 74 percent in states with secondary laws.

For front-seat passengers like Corzine, wearing a seat belt reduces the risk of death by 45 percent and the risk of moderate to critical injury by 50 percent, New Jersey AAA reports.

"Every time you get in a car, it is a numbers game," Mount said, noting that no one is exempt from possible involvement in a crash.

Some have speculated that Corzine would make that point loud and clear after his release from the hospital.