Upgrading Minnesota

1
Upgrading Minnesotas Seat Belt Law

• Nancy Franke Wilson
• Community Health Liaison
• Minnesota Department of Public Safetys
• Office of Traffic Safety

2
Minnesota Traffic Crashes

• In my 32 years with the Minneapolis Police
  Department I only saw one traffic accident.
  Lighting hit a tree and the tree hit a car that
  was an accident. Bob OBrien, Law Enforcement
  Liaison, MN DPS
• (Random House, Accident Chance, Luck or Fortune)

3
By the End of the Calendar Year 2005

• The population of Minnesota approached 5.2
  million.
• There were almost 3.9 million licensed drivers.
• Over 4.6 million motor vehicles were registered.
• Almost 57 billion miles were driven.

4
The Problem In 2005

• 87,813 traffic crashes occurred
• 221,835 people were involved
• 161,683 motor vehicles were involved
• 97,686 people were injured
• 559 people died
• Nearly 1.7 estimated economic cost to Minnesota
• Nationally, traffic crashes cost 7,000 a second

5
Who Was Involved?

• Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death to
  people age 1 to 34.
• 210 people (38) under age 30 died in Minnesota
  in 2005.
• 47 of people injured were under age 30.
• Senior citizen drivers were involved in 7 of
  crashes but accounted for 15 of fatalities.

6
Where Do Crashes Happen?

• Rural roads permit high speeds and no
  interstate-type safety designs.
• 70 of all fatal crashes occurred in rural areas.
• 69 on trunk or county state aid highways.
• Over two-third occur in areas with under 5,000
  population.

7
On an Average Day in 2005

• 241 crashes
• 1.6 deaths
• 103 people injured
• 4,565,139 average daily cost

8
Why is belt use a public health concern?

• Crashes are the leading cause of death for
  Minnesotans ages 1 through 34 years. (Center for
  Disease Control) Each year, the majority of those
  killed are unrestrained. (MN Dept. of Public
  Safety)
• Crashes are the leading cause of traumatic brain
  injury (TBI). Victims of TBI require some of the
  most costly acute and long-term care in the
  state. Sixty-two percent of TBI/crash victims did
  not use seatbelts or child restraints. (Brain
  Injury Association)

9
Why is belt use a public health concern?

• From 1998-2002, crashes killed more teens age 15
  to 17 than the next four leading causes of death
  combined. On average, 75 of those teens were not
  restrained. (MN Dept. of Public Safety)
• More children die in crashes than from all
  childhood diseases combined. (Center for Disease
  Control).

10
Why is belt use an economic concern?

• Between 1998 and 2002, 34,000 unbelted vehicle
  occupants were injured or killed in Minnesota
  crashes. The estimated cost to society from those
  injuries was 1.9 billion so 13 of total crash
  costs are for medical treatment. (Based on
  National Safety Council cost estimates)
• Traffic crashes are the leading cause of
  workplace fatalities. (MN Dept. of Labor and
  Industry)
• Crash victims who are not wearing seat belts have
  medical bills that are 50 higher than those
  victims who wore a belt. Society bears 74 of
  those costs through increased insurance premiums,
  taxes and health care and insurance costs.
  (NHTSA)

11
Occupant Protection

• Seat belts are the most effective safety devices
  in vehicles.
• In potentially fatal crashes they increase your
  chance of survival by 45 in a car and 60 in a
  light truck.

12
Occupant Protection

• Without wearing a seat belt, a 35 m.p.h. crash is
  the equivalent of falling from a third-story
  window.
• If you are in the back seat and not belted in a
  crash, your body becomes a lethal object moving
  forward with enough force to break the back of
  someone riding in the front or to cause brain
  injury.

13
Minnesotas Safety Belt Laws

• Requires all front seat passengers and all
  passengers under the age of eleven to wear safety
  belts.
• Became effective in Minnesota on August 1, 1986.
• Fine for not wearing a safety belt is 25.
• Amended in 1988 and 1991.

14
What is Standard Universal?

• Primary means standard the same status as
  every other state law. Minnesotas current
  secondary seat belt law cannot be enforced
  directly. Upgrading to primary will allow
  enforcement of this important law like every
  other traffic law.

15
(No Transcript)
16
Why Upgrade the Law?

• Its a no-cost and big-savings law.
• It will save lives (more than 40) and serious
  injuries (more than 400) every year in Minnesota.
• It will save on health care costs. According to
  NHTSA, unbelted crash victims have medical bills
  50 higher than belted victims.

17
Why Upgrade the Law?

• Studies have found that states that pass a
  primary seat belt law increase average seat belt
  usage by nine to 14 percentage points.
• This, in turn, decreases crash fatalities by an
  average of eight percent and decreases the
  severity of injuries in crashes.

18
(No Transcript)
19
Why Upgrade the Law?

• Minnesota will receive over 15 million in
  federal incentive funds.
• Most Minnesotans want a primary seat belt law.
  (71 according to the 2005 Minnesota State
  Survey.)
• It is straightforward law enforcement. Law
  enforcement officers can see violation and take
  direct action.

20
Why Upgrade the Law?

• Adults who do not buckle up are sending a message
  to children that it is all right not to use seat
  beltsthe probability of a fatally injured child
  being unrestrained is more than twice as likely
  when the adult driving was unrestrained.
  (Starnes, 2003)

21
Why Upgrade the Law?

• If Minnesota increased its seat belt use rate by
  10 percentage points from the current rate of 84
  percent to 94 percent, the cumulative charge
  savings to all government payer (taxpayer-funded)
  sources is projected to be 85.2 million by 2015,
  and the cumulative charge savings to all payer
  sources would be nearly 190 million.

22
Arguments Against

• Seat belt use is a personal choice and should not
  be legislated. It affects no one but me.
• If Minnesota enacts a universal standard
  enforcement seat belt law, it will open the door
  for "differential enforcement" or racial
  profiling, making traffic stops based only on
  ethnicity.

23
Arguments Against

• Ill take my risksafter all, its my neck, and
  my health care expenses.
• Safety belts are uncomfortable and wrinkle my
  clothes.
• People who dont wear them now wont be more
  inclined to wear a safety belt if the law is
  upgraded.

24
Why Upgrade the Law?

• Its a no-cost and big-savings law.
• It will save lives (more than 40) and serious
  injuries (more than 400) every year in Minnesota.
• It will save on health care costs. According to
  NHTSA, unbelted crash victims have medical bills
  50 higher than belted victims.

25
Why Upgrade the Law?

• Studies have found that states that pass a
  primary seat belt law increase average seat belt
  usage by nine to 14 percentage points.
• This, in turn, decreases crash fatalities by an
  average of eight percent and decreases the
  severity of injuries in crashes.

26
What Can I Do?

• Join the Minnesota Safety Belt Coalition
• Share this information.
• http//www.mnsafetycouncil.org/sbcoalition/action.
  pdf

27
Contact information

• Nancy Franke Wilson, MS
• 4190 Vinewood Lane N
• Suite 111-416
• Plymouth, MN 55442
• 763-545-2684 office
• 763-360-3875 cell
• nancyfranke_at_comcast.net