There were three empty seats and some half-empty hearts when members of the Waimea High School Class of 2004 commencement happened on the school lawn earlier this month. The three empty seats were for classmates who died in traffic accidents,
There were three empty seats and some half-empty hearts when members of the Waimea High School Class of 2004 commencement happened on the school lawn earlier this month.
The three empty seats were for classmates who died in traffic accidents, and the half-empty hearts were in the bodies of their classmates who still mourn their passing, and cling to their memories.
Whether or not those three young people who died in traffic accidents would have been saved had they been wearing seat belts is useless conjecture at this point (one was thrown from the bed of a pickup truck).
But Kaua‘i Police Department officials continue to stress the fact that there is a connection between wearing seat belts and surviving accidents.
“There’s an obvious correlation between seat-belt use and minimal injuries in accidents,” said KPD Lt. Scott Yagihara, head of the department’s Traffic Safety Unit.
And judging by the fact that at least two people on Kaua‘i this year died after being ejected from vehicles during accidents, Yagihara is fairly certain that there would be fewer than six fatalities on Kaua‘i this year had those six people all been wearing seat belts. “When people don’t use seat belts, bad things happen,” he said. And bad things have happened this year, even if based solely on the fact that for the first five months of this year there have been six traffic deaths on Kaua‘i roadways, compared to just one during the same period last year (please see the chart).
“Had they been wearing seat belts, they’d still be walking around,” said Yagihara, his voice filled with emotion because the deaths are losses to him, too.
In the two years since he’s been in charge of the KPD Traffic Safety Unit, he’s seen the human devastation deadly traffic accidents cause, including more than his share of traffic fatalities involving juveniles, he said.
“Maybe kids think bad things can’t happen to them,” he said. During an accident, the laws of physics come into play, with unrestrained objects (including people) hurtling through the air in the direction of the impact, he explained.
Unrestrained drivers and passengers in front seats end up going through the windshield in head-on or frontal-impact crashes, he said. Nearly 60 percent of all unbelted occupants are ejected from vehicles during crashes, and 73 percent of ejected occupants are killed, according to national statistics. “People will be safer if they follow a few simple rules,” said Yagihara. People need to take the responsibility of driving a vehicle seriously, because injuries or deaths can be results of inattentive driving. If someone is driving, he or she should focus on the task of driving.
If something falls, let it go. If an unruly child in the back seat is getting on the driver’s nerves, pull over, he advised.
Paul C. Curtis, Associate Editor, can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
