Students should stay safe, wear seat belts

If you value your life ““ and your pocketbook ““ now
is the time to buckle up.

Over the next three weeks the University Police Department plans
to dedicate officers to search for drivers and passengers who fail
to buckle up. The tickets will start at $87 apiece.

UCPD officials said their efforts are part of a campaign to
increase seat belt usage from 90.4 percent to 92 percent
statewide.

The campaign’s target of a 1.6 percent increase sounds
silly, and it’s questionable whether police resources might
be better put to use elsewhere, but it is true that seat belt use
is a critical in surviving crashes.

The state Office of Traffic Safety estimates that 671 people
died in 2003 because they were not using seat belts.

Young people ““ including college students ““ are
often overconfident about their driving ability and chances of
surviving a crash. Don’t become a statistic.