With death all around them, some drivers still won’t buckle up

WAILUA – Young lives of Kaua’i youth have been snuffed out in recent automobile accidents where use of seat belts may have made the difference between life and death.

Encouraging the use of seat belts is the focus of the well-publicized statewide “Click It or Ticket” highway safety program now underway.

“People are dying without using seat belts,” said Chief George Freitas of the Kauai Police Department. Specifically, he refers to Jasmine Pai and Kalama Nobriga.

Police reports say they thrown from vehicles because they didn’t have belts on. With belts, injuries may have prevented or lessened, said Lt. Scott Yagihara of KPD’s traffic safety division.

In the case of a two-vehicle accident earlier this month on O’ahu, a van driver involved in the head-on accident probably survived because he was wearing a seat belt, while Pai, a 15-year-old born in Lihu’e, was ejected from a vehicle and didn’t live.

Yagihara thinks Nobriga, 31, would still be alive if he had been belted when his vehicle flipped over on Rice Street a few weeks ago. He was also ejected.

It goes to show, police said, that what they’ve been saying for years is true: seat belts save lives.

A 44-year-old Kaua’i male was in critical condition at The Queen’s Medical Center, two weeks after his vehicle flipped near the Tree Tunnel.

He was out of the vehicle when the first responders arrived, so it was not known if he was wearing a belt at the time of the incident, or if he was thrown from his vehicle, was helped out, or got out under his own power.

The police say they are seeing too many accident sites where seat belt use would have made a difference.

“My officers don’t want to go to these accident scenes anymore,” said KPD Police Chief George Freitas, referring to the carnage they encounter.

Visible and well-publicized efforts to increase compliance with state seat-belt laws have increased compliance on Kaua’i, Freitas said.

As part of the “Click It or Ticket” campaign, from May 13 to June 7, KPD officers issue 649 seat-belt citations, which carry fines of $67 each (total state income $43,483); and 39 child-restraint citations, at $100 apiece equals $3,900, for total fines of $47,383.

And the campaign isn’t over yet.

Even with traffic deaths on the island increasing, some folks feel that being forced by state law to wear seat belts is an infringement on their personal rights of choice.

In some parts of the world, the family vehicle is considered an extension of the family home, making it totally acceptable to have knives and guns aboard.

“What I do in my own car is my own business,” said Newton J. Booth of Wailua Homesteads, who doesn’t hide the fact that he physically removed the seat belts from his truck.

There was a time not too long ago when nine million vehicles were recalled because of potential problems with seat-belt systems not releasing after accidents, pinning people inside vehicles, Booth said.

After that, he yanked his seat belts. “Whatever happened to freedom of choice? They’re infringing on my rights, and I’m getting scared,” Newton said.

The way he sees it, he’s been driving longer (55 years) than most of the police have been alive. “Don’t tell me how to drive,” said Newton, a 70-year-old woodcrafter.

“It’s a way to make money. That’s all,” he said, disputing the mantra that seat belts save lives. “Don’t lie to me,” said Newton, who finds sobriety checkpoints (DUI roadblocks) an invasion of privacy as well.

If seat-belt usage saves lives and is important for passenger vehicles, Booth figures seat belts should also be mandatory in large trucks, emergency vehicles, and school buses and tour buses, which are currently exempt from the state seat-belt law.

Others who agree with Booth say the way to save lives on the roadways of Kaua’i is to get the speeders and drinkers off the roads.

Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).