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Children need seat belts every time

Too many people continue to allow children to ride in motor vehicles without a seat belt. Such carelessness ought to be a crime.

Wait - it is.

Under Florida law it is illegal for any person to operate a motor vehicle unless every passenger younger than 18, regardless of where they are sitting, is restrained by a seat belt or child safety seat.

It isn't just the law; it is common sense. Yet children continue to be killed or injured in traffic accidents because the driver did not require them to wear their seat belts.

Even sheriff's deputies, who see a lot in their jobs, were shaking their heads after responding to a recent Dunedin accident in which six children 3 weeks to 10 years old had not been wearing seat belts.

All six children were injured, four of them seriously, when the Dunedin resident driving the Kia Sportage rolled through a stop sign and was hit by a Jeep Wrangler, sheriff's officials said. The impact caused the Kia to roll over.

The Kia driver was given six citations and fines for violating the seat belt law. In Pinellas, the fine for a seat belt violation is $70.50.

Under a change in Florida's seat belt law that became effective July 1, law enforcement officers can now pull over a vehicle if they merely observe someone who looks to be younger than 18 riding in a car without a seat belt.

Before the law was changed, officers had to see some other type of violation before they could pull over a car and ticket occupants for a seat belt violation. Under Florida's new "primary" seat belt law that protects those younger than 18, officers no longer need an excuse to pull a motorist over and cite them for seat belt violations.

The Legislature made that change in its last session at the urging of state Rep. Irv Slosberg of Boca Raton. Slosberg's 14-year-old daughter was killed in an accident in which she was not wearing a seat belt.

Now officers who see a child standing up or jumping around in a moving vehicle - doesn't that give you chills? - can do more than shake their heads. By pulling over that thoughtless driver and delivering a ticket and a stern lecture, they might save a child's life.

[Last modified August 21, 2005, 00:50:20]