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CONCORD - The state police chiefs’ association has switched sides in the debate over broadening New Hampshire’s seat-belt law.

For the first time, the chiefs support making seat-belt use mandatory for all, not just those under 17.

"Times change and I guess people do," says Stephen Savage, Plaistow Police Chief and association’s president. "There is compelling evidence that it is necessary - including an alarming rise in fatalities."

Last year, 167 people died in traffic accidents in New Hampshire, up from 119 the year before.

New Hampshire, whose motto is "Live Free or Die," has long resisted a universal seat-belt law, though every other state has one. It claims 63 percent usage from encouraging people to buckle-up voluntarily. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration said its own survey in 2003 found 50 percent usage.

Savage said the association’s change of heart came in a vote last fall....

State Department of Safety figures through October indicated that at least 41 of the people killed in accidents last year could have lived if they had been wearing seat belts. Dr. Joseph Sabato Jr., a seat-belt advocate, said the number almost certainly is higher because in many accidents, investigators could not tell whether victims were belted.

An emergency room doctor for 23 years, Sabato said people who aren’t buckled up tend to have more serious injuries and more broken bones than other car-crash victims. "The state and its citizens pick up the extensive cost of the freedom to not use seat belts," he said. "In fact, everyone else is subsidizing those who are injured or die when they could have been saved by seat belts. The fiscally responsible move is to look for every opportunity to reduce costs and save lives. Increasing seat-belt use would save many lives."...

Read the full story here, from the Rockingham News

 DSA Comments:  We are astonished that the New Hampshire state police chiefs’ association has only now worked it out that "there is compelling evidence that [ seat belt usage] is necessary." 

     It does, of course, beg the question as to just how many extra people have been killed, over the years, while people in such a position of authority "ummed and ahhed" about the freedom of choice. And before anyone jumps down our throat because we dare to question such a principle, we would also ask:  How many bereaved relatives of those additional dead people would now wish that seat belts HAD been compulsory all along, and that their loved one had been using one?

Eddie Wren, Executive Director, Drive and Stay Alive, Inc.