FAILURE TO BUCKLE UP CARRIES HIGH RISKS

A trooper with Troop E of the Missouri Highway Patrol for the past 5 1/2 years, Perry Hazelwood, is awfully young to have seen so many who died so needlessly.

Last week, he investigated an accident in which a 49-year-old Millersville man was killed after being thrown from his pickup truck and run over by another car. He wasn't wearing a seat belt.

"He had a high likelihood of extremely minor injuries," Hazelwood said. "The vehicle was hardly damaged at all."

The Troop E list of no-seat belt tragedies continues:

-- A 17-year-old Jackson girl lost control of her car on Highway 72 near Millersville shortly before 8 a.m. on April 28. The car struck a tree and she was partially ejected. The girl was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.

Her younger brother riding in the passenger seat was not injured, a classic example of a seat belt's effectiveness, Hazelwood said.

"The investigating officer said she definitely would have been alive and kicking had she worn a seat belt."

-- Late on Dec. 27, a 28-year-old St. Louis man lost control of his Dodge pickup truck and lost his life on Highway 34 near Burfordville. The truck slid across the road, struck an earthen embankment and overturned, partially ejecting the driver through the passenger window.

Despite the vehicle overturning, the investigating officer, a 25-year sergeant with the highway patrol, said the victim probably wouldn't have been scratched had he been wearing a seat belt.

-- On Jan. 27, two Cape Girardeau teen-agers were injured when their car ran into a ditch and overturned on Route Y near Oriole. Both were thrown from the car when it overturned. Neither was wearing a seat belt.

The investigating officer said their injuries definitely would have been less severe had they been wearing seat belts.

-- Late the following night, two Chaffee teen-agers were injured when their car left County Road 212 in Scott County. The car slid off the right side of the road and came to rest when its undercarriage struck the ground. Both hit their heads on the windshield. They were not wearing seat belts, according to the highway patrol report.

-- An 18-year-old Cape Girardeau woman was killed on Boutin Road in the early morning hours of Feb. 21. Her car ran onto the right shoulder, veered back across the center line and began to overturn. The force of the impact ejected her through the rear driver-side door and she was pinned beneath the vehicle.

She was wearing only the shoulder automatic restraint device.

The car remained relatively intact, Hazelwood said. "She definitely would have walked away from this wreck."

-- On March 2, a 52-year-old Cape Girardeau man was killed after his pickup truck collided with a semi-truck on the I-55 access road on South Kingshighway. He was partially thrown through the rear window of the truck and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The investigating officer told Hazelwood the man probably would not have been killed had he been wearing a seat belt.

Statewide statistics bear out Hazelwood's concerns. Of the 607 drivers killed in car or truck accidents on state roads last year, 402 of them weren't wearing seat belts.

Smaller numbers of victims weren't wearing one of their safety devices -- either lap belts or shoulder belts -- or were driving vehicles not equipped with belts at all. In Missouri, seat belts became mandatory in cars manufactured after Jan. 1, 1968.

The numbers are lower but the ratios are about the same for passengers.

Illinois has a more restrictive seat belt law than Missouri's and a much heftier $75 fine for not wearing one (Missouri's fine is $10). A recent survey conducted within Illinois State Police District 22, based in Ullin, found 86 percent compliance on the two-lane road under surveillance, and 74 percent compliance on the interstate highway surveyed. "Both of those are very high," Master Sgt. Jerry Rosson said.

Unlike Hazelwood, Rosson couldn't recall any recent instances in the seven-county district in which someone died because they weren't wearing a seat belt. "We're seeing increased use of seat belts," he said, "and increased emphasis on seat belt use."

In Illinois, all children in cars must wear belts, whether in the front seat or rear, and everyone in a pickup truck seat must be belted. Both states allow anyone to ride in the bed of a pickup truck without being secured.

"The agricultural lobby in Illinois is a very powerful lobby, as I'm sure it is in Missouri," Rosson said. "We have tried unsuccessfully to get that law changed."

Hazelwood said the lap and shoulder belts are important to use in tandem -- the lap belt prevents ejection, the shoulder belt stops the occupant from hitting the windshield.

He has heard all the excuses: "They're uncomfortable. I know somebody who would have died if they had been wearing their seat belt. They wrinkle my clothes. I'm only going a short distance."

After investigating more than 600 traffic accidents so far in his patrol career, Hazelwood said he hasn't encountered a case in which not wearing a seat belt would have resulted in less severe injuries.

Though officers still aren't permitted to stop drivers suspected of not wearing seat belts, law enforcement attitudes toward seat belt use are changing, Hazelwood says.

Last month, the Missouri attorney general's office issued a ruling making drivers responsible for securing children between the ages and 4 and 15 when they're riding in the front seat. The law applies to all motor vehicles, including pickup trucks when a child is in the front seat.

Adults are not required to wear seat belts in pickup trucks in Missouri.

Children under the age of 5 must be in an approved child safety seat when riding in any seat position in any vehicle. The exception is public carriers for hire.

A Tamms, Ill., native who now lives in rural Jackson, Hazelwood said previously laissez-faire sentiments are changing as well among duty officers, who witness the unnecessary carnage firsthand and talk to the victims' families.

"I realize that a person's freedom not to wear a seat belt is less important to me than it used to be," he said.