DATE: Saturday, March 8, 1997               TAG: 9703080002

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   47 lines

SAFETY BELTS: SIGN THIS CHILD-SAVER GOVERNOR ALLEN SHOULD REDUCE TRAFFIC-RELATED FATALITIES WITH THE STROKE OF HIS PEN.

Motor-vehicle crashes are the leading unintentional killer of children.

In Virginia last year, 80 percent of children ages 4 through 15 fatally injured in such crashes were not wearing safety belts. That compares unfavorably with a kill rate of more than 70 percent for unbelted Virginia motor-vehicle occupants age 16 and up and is far greater than the 45 percent kill rate for unbelted children below age 4.

So the General Assembly voted legislation in the short session aimed at increasing safety-belt use by youngsters.

Gov. George F. Allen has yet to sign the legislation. But sign it, he should - as passed.

By unanimous voice vote at a February conference in Washington, D.C., the National Governors Association urged all states to mandate use of front-seat and back-seat safety belts by all occupants and authorize troopers to stop vehicles in which they suspect the safety-belt law is being flouted.

Virginia lawmakers have responded to the governors' advice. Others calling for a stricter law, which closes deadly loopholes, are the AAA Clubs of Virginia, the Professional Fire Fighters Association, the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, the Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Virginia Medical Society, the Virginia Parent Teacher Association, Drive Smart Virginia, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the National Safety Council, Nationwide Insurance, Virginia Mutual Insurance Co., National Association of Independent Insurers Co and Alliance of American Insurers.

Signing the stricter safety-belt law ought to be a no-brainer. The purpose of the law is to save lives, not to harass motorists. Reducing highway deaths and injuries saves money, too; prevention is cheaper than patching up or burying accident victims.

States that alert the public to toughened safety-belt laws and then enforce them record gratifying increases in buckling up and declines in highway fatalities.

Virginians would benefit if safety-belt use went up. It has been slipping in the state - to below 70 percent in 1996 from a high of just over 73 percent in 1993.

Not good.

With the stroke of his pen, the governor could reverse the trend. He should sign.

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