Good morning!

Last October, I made my first trip to New Hampshire, and I most certainly admired the beautiful scenery, calmer pace of life, and lovely people.  I am back today as a safety advocate from the National Transportation Safety Board with a life and death message.

If New Hampshire wants to lower its highway death toll, it must enact a primary enforcement seat belt law.  And do it now before more people die.  New Hampshire has the dubious honor of being the only State without an adult seat belt law.  That’s why New Hampshire has the lowest observed belt use rate, and belt use among fatally injured occupants in New Hampshire is staggeringly lower than the observed rate!

This State has sadly been ignoring research that shows legislation requiring all vehicle occupants to use their seat belts is the single greatest life-saving measure that New Hampshire can enact. Simply put -- seat belt laws get people to use their seat belts.  A higher belt use rate means fewer people dying!

For almost 40 years, my agency has been the conscience of the transportation community.  The Safety Board’s job is to investigate accidents in all modes of transportation and make recommendations to prevent future accidents, injuries, and deaths.

We see first hand the tragic results of highway crashes, which cause over 90 percent of all transportation-related deaths in this country.  Highway crashes are the leading cause of death for people age 4 through 34, and one of the leading causes of death for all ages, killing approximately 43 thousand people each year.  In 2005, more than 31,400 motor vehicle occupants were killed in highway crashes, 55 percent of whom were unrestrained.  We know that the single greatest defense against dying in a motor vehicle crash is the seat belt.  Seat belts are 44 to 73 percent effective at preventing death from a motor vehicle crash.  And we know strict seat belt enforcement saves lives.

We take our position on seat belt legislation seriously and only after we have examined the issues and determined that legislation can improve transportation safety.  The Safety Board’s support for seat belt laws began almost 20 years ago when the Board issued its 1988 report on the performance of lap/shoulder belts.  The report’s findings prompted the Board to push for mandatory restraint use laws because buckling up is a matter of intelligent risk management; wearing a lap/shoulder belt substantially reduces your chance of premature and preventable death.

Then in 1991, the Safety Board recommended that the remaining 12 States without a seat belt law enact appropriate legislation.  This was so important to the Board that we placed the recommendation on our list of Most Wanted safety improvements.  By 1995, only 2 States lacked a seat belt law. However, most of the existing laws authorized only secondary enforcement, preventing police officers from issuing a citation for a seat belt violation unless the vehicle has been stopped for another reason.

After a study of seat belt use in California revealed the substantially positive effects of upgrading to primary enforcement, the Safety Board issued its 1995 recommendation.  We asked the remaining States, including New Hampshire, to enact comparable primary enforcement seat belt laws.  In 1997, the Board re-examined the issue and concluded that primary enforcement laws should also apply to all seating positions and impose substantial fines and license penalty points.  This 1997 recommendation remains on the Board’s Most Wanted list.

We know New Hampshire legislators want to save lives.  They can do so by enacting House Bill 802.  I want to thank Representative Brown and her co-sponsors for introducing this legislation!  And I ask that New Hampshire’s other legislators emulate this leadership by voting for this life-saving measure.  Thank you.