Don’t become a statistic

Talk about it

It seems as though there’s a list for everything these days: the best-dressed list, the worst-dressed list, the top 100 best investments list, the top 20 richest people in the world list – you get the picture. 

Well, now we have Minnesota’s “top 20 counties with the highest percentage of unbelted traffic deaths” list. Released last week by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) Office of Traffic Safety, the list points to problem areas of the state that have the highest percentage of deaths among unbelted motorists. And it’s not pretty. 

Both Kanabec and Wadena counties had three motorist deaths apiece during the time period of 2008-2010, and all three of them – or 100 percent – were motorists driving unbelted. Those counties topped “the list,” but close behind them were Redwood County, with five out of six (83 percent) crash deaths involving unbelted drivers, Lac Qui Parle with four out of five (80 percent), and Brown with three out of four (75 percent).

Thankfully, Carlton County didn’t make “the list,” but still, the news was not good. Though there were no fatalities among unbelted drivers in Carlton County during that time period, there were 12 crashes involving unbelted drivers that resulted in severe injuries.

Our long-term record is even worse. Of the 14 vehicle-

related deaths in Carlton County during 2006-2010, six of them involved occupants not wearing seat belts.

Those are some mighty discouraging statistics. Despite the fact Minnesota law requires drivers and all passengers to be buckled up, an alarming number of people are choosing to violate that law on a daily basis. 

Despite the fact that in a crash odds are six times greater for injury if a motorist is not buckled up, an unbelievable number of motorists refuse to take advantage of the protection they offer.  

Despite the fact that properly wearing a seat belt reduces the risk of fatal injury to front seat passenger occupants by 45 percent in a car and 60 percent in a light truck, a surprising number of motorists are still opting to look death in the eye. 

Seat belt use should come as logically and naturally to motorists as breathing, but way too many of them are still risking their lives, especially among Greater Minnesotans (where some 75 percent of unbelted traffic deaths occur), young drivers (each year motorists ages 15-29 account for about 40 percent of all unbelted deaths and 50 percent of all unbelted serious injuries), and drinking drivers (70 percent of them killed in crashes are not buckled up). 

That’s a lot of statistical information to throw around, but it’s offered on a “need to know” basis – in order to stay alive, and to keep our county and our loved one off “the list.”  

Wendy Johnson

Tags: opinion, editorials, travel