North Dakota Traffic Fatalities Have Gone Up Since Seat Belt Use Mandated

• February 1, 2009

One legislator in North Dakota thinks seat belt laws need to be tougher, and would like to move seat belts up to a primary offense category. Meaning that police officers could stop us if we’re suspected of not using our seat belts:

North Dakota has required motorists to use their seat belts for years, but a Fargo legislator and representatives of several state agencies say usage isn’t likely to rise unless the law is toughened.
“There’s just a certain segment of society … I don’t think we’re going to make any more progress,” said Rep. Ed Gruchalla, D-Fargo, who is a former state highway patrolman. “This will give us a dramatic increase.”
Gruchalla is sponsoring a bill that would allow North Dakota law officers to stop and ticket motorists if they are observed not using their seat belts. The House Transportation Committee held a hearing on the proposal Friday.

First off, since this is being done in the name of public safety, let’s look at the public safety numbers. Per NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data here are the total number of traffic fatalities (not including motorcycles and non-vehicle occupants such as pedestrians) in North Dakota since our seat belt law went into effect:
2008: 104
2007: 98
2006: 103
2005: 106
2004: 84
2003: 94
2002: 93
2001: 98
2000: 75
1999: 112
1998: 85
1997: 96
1996: 76
1995: 65
1994: 78
Putting that into graphical form:

Seems to me that, since North Dakota’s original seat belt law went into effect, traffic fatalities have gone up. Not down.
Now, I doubt that the existence of a seat belt law made fatalities go up. I suspect that things such as an increased number of drivers on the road, and perhaps more miles driven, may have an impact on that. But I think it’s rather hard to argue that the existing seat belt law has made North Dakotans any safer. And I doubt that making seat belt enforcement more draconian, and essentially giving law enforcement officers a blank check to pull over anyone with the flimsy excuse of “I thought he/she wasn’t wearing a seat belt,” is going to improve the situation at all.
There’s no need for this law, and I don’t think our political leaders should be in the habit of legislating just for the sake of legislating.

Tags: North Dakota News, Politics

http://Array ben

yeah Rob, seatbelts kill people…dumbass
http://www.willisms.com/ Zsa Zsa

Anna, I saw a lot of people with serious head injuries in ICU when my sister was in her car wreck. Mostly the motor cycle wrecks were the ones that were truly devastating! Helmets or not! BUT I still don’t think motor cycles have to be band or mandatory rubber suits are necessary. Statistics mixed with common sense, and awareness of what can happen are so important. Perhaps when taking drivers training or applying for a drivers license potential drivers should be required to see results of what can happen in accidents? I do believe that children should be required to wear some kind of protection though. I just think that adults should not be required by penalty of Law if they choose not to wear a seat belt.
http://northerngleaner.blogspot.com/ Gene

This is how profiling is done in IL.

If you are a black and drive (DWB) you will be stopped for failure to wear a seat belt.

So, in NODAK, if you are Norwegian and drive…. (DWN)

This is a stupid law and an encroachment on freedom. Seat belt wear is like smoking or drinking. If you do it or not, even if it’s stupid, then that’s your option.

Welcome to socialist NODAK where apparently the motto is “We know what you are doing and we want you to stop it now”.
TheTodd

From the bloggers who brought you “Global Warming is a Hoax!”, comes:

North Dakota Traffic Fatalities Have Gone Up Since Seat Belt Use Mandated
http://www.moszer.net/ Moszer

If I recall correctly, one of the original justifications of this law was the belief that people wearing seat belts were not only less likely to die but less likely to suffer serious injuries in a crash as well. As a result medical costs to society in general were supposed to be reduced.

It would be interesting to see a “major injuries” per year chart to see if it’s had any effect at all. Personally I doubt it.

The problem I have with these kinds of laws is that the people pushing them usually just assume they are the right thing to do and don’t ever check to see if they had the intended effect.

Just like the way DUI enforcement is run now, yet the number of DUI’s don’t seem to be going down. We’re all just forced to put up with these idiotic check points.
Fallacious reasoning

So much discussion; so little reasoning. Before you can conclude the law has failed, you have to find out how many people actually comply with it. Sounds to me like those knuckleheads who were thrown from their cars all chose to break the seat belt law. Good law, bad enforcement.
docdave

The same dogooder mantality is used to justify seat belts that is used for gun control and other baseless assertions. e.g. Reducing guns will save lives; pacifying our enemies will make us safe.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Thanks for properly labeling your reasoning.

Seat belt use is far higher now than before the first seat belt law was passed.
robert108

Human-caused Global Warming is a hoax.
http://www.willisms.com/ Zsa Zsa

Isn’t North Dakota the State that is “Clinging to their Guns and Religion”? Maybe the seatbelt laws and the fact that North Dakotan’s like their freedom are making a clear example of how unnecessary some laws are? Why do we need Govt. to tell us what to do?
http://norseberserker.blogspot.com/ Rugby Reader

Our seat belt law is just fine. “Click it or ticket” does not get much simpler. This a waste of legislature’s time.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Chuckle heads in Bismarck are so overreaching.
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/Anna/ Anna

As a medic I’m a firm believer in the seat belt law. As I’ve said before nothing is worse than having to scrape up what is left of a person who has been thrown around in or from a vehicle. When there’s not much more than shattered bones and liquid matter left to hand over to the family … it definitely helps one understand the benefit of the law.
I guess, perhaps, the law is for the idiots who can’t think for themselves? Some people are just too naive to realize that remaining restrained in the vehicle is far safer than not.
To me, if the law makes just a few people safer then I’m for it.
AR-15

No way! Another arrogant DemoRat who thinks he knows better how to live YOUR life.
Global warming is a hoax TheTOAD.
ollie-B

Now, I doubt that the existence of a seat belt law made fatalities go up. I suspect that things such as an increased number of drivers on the road, and perhaps more miles driven, may have an impact on that. But I think it’s rather hard to argue that the existing seat belt law has made North Dakotans any safer. And I doubt that making seat belt enforcement more draconian, and essentially giving law enforcement officers a blank check to pull over anyone with the flimsy excuse of “I thought he/she wasn’t wearing a seat belt,” is going to improve the situation at all.

Let’s face it. North Dakotans don’t like to be told what to do. They treasure their freedom of choice without regard to how that choice might affect them or their loved ones. I agree with your arguments and I applaud your comparisons with fatalities without saying “See the law hasn’t saved lives.”
From my perspective, most North Dakotans don’t know how to drive.
Look at the number of fatalities caused by drivers failing to yield at unmarked 4-way highway intersections, driving too fast for conditions on icy and snowy roads, going at top speed down loose gravel roads and allowing young children to drive vehicles
they cannot handle. I think they ought to stop teaching drivers ed because it is a waste of time. Teenagers take the course in order to get a license. Then they go out and do what they want to. One thing that is undeniable: seat belts save lives. Just think of how much lower that death total would have been had persons involved in roll-over accidents worn their seat belts. In almost every case the persons who died were ejected from their vehicles. I think these people are just plain selfish and give no thought to the suffering of loved ones left behind. I remember seeing a man driving down the street in his pickup with his small son, who couldn’t have been more than a toddler (if that), standing on the seat with his hands resting on the dashboard. I guess stupidity knows no bounds.
welder4

17 to 25 years old ladies with cell phones stuck to the side of their heads are causing a lot of wrecks some of the populace can’t walk and chew gum at the same time . The same goes for males in that age bracket , the cell phones are like Gods to them they will actually if they drop them on the floor board will swing down turning the wheel to the right to pick it up not knowing where they are going. It is not the seat belts that are causing the fatality rates to go up it is cell phone use by someone who will not concentrate on their driving while doing that . I started through a light that had just turned green and did not make it across the cross walk and this guy came out of the center lane all the way over and hit me in the front bumper I stopped because I seen a blur coming and slammed the brakes on and stopped before entering the inter section , guess what he said? , he was picking his cell phone up, he was also doing 60 in a 35 , and no skid marks from his vehicle I guess he thought retrieving his phone was a good reason to hit me . He had no idea where he was at . it totaled my nice van, and he had a whopping 10,500 insurance which the other two he hit in the opposing lane took most of that. I would have got hardly anything for my van if I had not had uninsured motorist, so I got paid . it broke my windshield and deployed both front air bags . this generation does not pay attention to driving while driving . they are passengers not drivers when they are behind the wheel.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Well, Todd, to the extent that global warming is behind sold as an imminent, human-caused apocalypse…yes it is a hoax.

And as I demonstrated with the data above, fatalities really have gone up since seat belt use was mandated in North Dakota.

Facts are facts, no matter how inconvenient they are to your world view.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Ben, did you bother to read the post? Or any of my subsequent comments?

I never said that seat belts were killing people. I’m simply pointing out that seat belt mandates clearly aren’t saving any lives in North Dakota.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

It is not the seat belts that are causing the fatality rates to go up it is cell phone use by someone who will not concentrate on their driving while doing that .

A) I never suggested it was the seat belts causing fatalities to go up. The growth in fatalities is moderate, and probably most attributable there being more drivers doing more driving.

B) I doubt, given the rapid growth of cell phone use over the years I got data for, that cell phones are causing many fatalities. There just hasn’t been that much growth.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Hey, I wear my seat belt. I think it’s fairly stupid not to. My objection here is to unnecessary laws and wanton do-gooding.

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North Dakota Traffic Fatalities Have Gone Up Since Seat Belt Use Mandated

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