Seatbelts? Really?

Seat belt enforcement raises question: Saving lives or setting ticket quotas?

By Naomi Schalit and John Christie, Special to the BDN -- Posted March 27, 2013, at 5:22 a.m.

Maine seatbelt fatalities – worn vs not worn.  OK not wearing a seatbelts in an accident that could be fatal will up the probability of fatality.  But look at the chart for the past five years.

Notice the worn and not worn are effectively even when the accident level is below 100.  That would see to indicate that the cause of the accidents might be that those wearing seatbelts are the cause of the accidents.  They just happen to walk away from them.

Why blame those with the seatbelts?  Because it makes sense… the normal probability of an accident  has no knowledge of seatbelt usage… but a seatbelted individual will be both more comfortable, and more more careless because of it.