Seat Belts

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain (and State Delegate) Herb McMillan. We've leveled off at our cruising altitude, but you need to keep your seat belts fastened. We're in for a rough ride. Here's why. Our route of flight isn't what I voted for, but the liberal flight planners in our General Assembly think the economic weather is improving. Looking to the left, you see they increased state spending by another billion dollars, and that we project $1.4 billion deficits for years to come.

On the surface, those doggie seatbelts and car harnesses featured in catalogs seem like a good idea. After all, if we buckle up on the road, shouldn't our pets? The difference is that while human seatbelts are carefully tested and held to strict quality and design standards, the same is not true for pet restraints, so there's no guarantee Fido or Fluffy is actually safer wearing one. That may be about to change. Carmaker Subaru of America, Inc. , announced it has teamed up with the Center for Pet Safety to fund testing of car safety restraints for pets.

For the rest of May, and especially over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, Maryland State Police from the Bel Air Barrack say they plan to be out in force on traffic details, with a special focus on people who drink and drive as well as those who aren't wearing seat belts. In a press release issued recently, the state police said they want "to remind everyone that buckling up is the single most effective thing you can do to protect yourself in a motor vehicle collision. " The enforcement effort focusing on people not wearing seat belts goes by the name "Click It or Ticket," and has been under way since the beginning of the month.

As state officials unveiled a giant statue of a crash test dummy at its new home in Glen Burnie Tuesday, they deemed it "destined to be a regional landmark. " But towering at five times larger than life and weighing 2 tons, the bright-yellow tribute to safety drew fears it would become a regional source of rubbernecking. "We had a tremendous amount of thought about that," said John Kuo, administrator for the state Motor Vehicle Administration, whose headquarters became the dummy's final resting place.

On some major measures of mortality -- cancer and inner-cit homicides -- Maryland doesn't fare well. But here is one statistic of life and death of which the state can be proud:Maryland is the leader in the continental United States in seat-belt compliance. And partly as a result of that fact, the state is en route to its lowest total of highway fatalities in nearly two decades.The lowest number of highway deaths in Maryland, 616, was recorded in 1964. We've had almost two dozen more than that to date with only three days left in the year.

It seems so elemental it shouldn't bear a reminder: People cannot fly.Motorists who are thrown from a vehicle in a crash are four times more likely to be killed than if they had remained within the car. Fortunately, millions of people have taken that fact to heart as seat belt use in the country has swelled -- especially in Maryland, which last year led the continental United States in seat-belt compliance.But folks who need a refresher on the importance of seat belts, shoulder harnesses or child safety seats should look no farther than the recent headline news involving two athletes.

Twelve people whose lives were saved or injuries greatly reduced by seat belts or child safety seats were honored with framed certificates by Lt. Roy Neigh at the Westminster state police barracks yesterday.Those honored were all drivers or passengers in vehicles involved in accidents in Carroll County within the past year, said Lieutenant Neigh, barracks commander.They are Anna Mae Warehime, Brian Keith Jones, Diana Leaman Stull, William Harry Hill, Leslie Nicol Vaselaros, Trey Miles III, Gail Lee Smith, Kimberly Freeland, Kyle Patrick Freeland, Mary Anna Phillips, Kristopher M. Phillips and Karyn E. Phillips.

C Drivers in Carroll County, particularly those of pickup trucks, have slipped considerably in the use of seat belts, according to surveys conducted last month.Pickup truck drivers complied with the seat belt requirement only 57.4 percent of the time during the survey, compared with an 82 percent compliance rate in a survey several months ago.The surveys are an activity in the Golden Eagle Competition, and no citations were issued during the observations.The Golden Eagle Competition is a new highway safety initiative sponsored by the Maryland Association of Women Highway Safety Leaders and the State Highway Administration, according to the Carroll County Health Department.

Maryland State Police honored 13 people, including four children, whose lives were saved or whose injuries were greatly reduced by the use of safety belts in their "Saved By the Belt" ceremony yesterday at the Westminster Barracks.Barracks Commander Lt. Roy Neigh, assisted by county commissioners Donald Dell and Elmer Lippy, presented the certificates to the honorees as their guests and Crash Dummies Vince and Larry watched.First Sgt. Stephen Reynolds said 80 percent of the drivers in Carroll County have their seat belts buckled, but area police agencies are striving to improve that high rating.

The city of Westminster and its police force have been recognized with a state award for promoting car seat-belt use.Westminster was one of 10 entities, as were Howard and Frederick counties, commended for their efforts by the state Department of Transportation last week.The awards, sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, are open to a variety of organizations, including local governments, military bases, companies and schools, that promote seat-belt use and demonstrate the effectiveness of their program.

An Odenton man died Saturday night after the car he was driving collided head-on with a Maryland Transit Administration bus in Glen Burnie, sending his 14-year-old passenger and nine people on the bus to area hospitals, police said. Anne Arundel County police said Marcus Antonio Anderson, 27, of Odenton, died before reaching a hospital after the 9:47 p.m. crash. His passenger, who was not named by police, was taken to Johns Hopkins Pediatric Trauma Center, where he was in stable condition, police said.

Baltimore's school children call her "The Sex Lady," and during the four decades Deborah Roffman has taught them about their bodies, the only thing that hasn't changed is the discomfort of their parents when they try to talk about sex. Even the sex has changed, becoming casual and transactional, invasive and pervasive. Marketing and advertising have driven the mercury higher. Technology has put sex only a touch or a keystroke away. "The boundaries that used to separate children's lives from adults' lives have in many respects vanished," said Ms. Roffman, who has taught at Park School for 38 years and often teaches at other independent schools locally and nationwide.

Michele Lorenz, a 42-year-old Columbia woman, died in a car accident in Columbia on Monday night after her truck collided with a tree, according to Howard County police. Police responded to the 5600 block of High Tor Hill about 9:30 p.m. for a report that a truck had crashed, police said. Police said based on an initial investigation, they believe the woman was alone, driving a 1999 Dodge Dakota south on the road when the truck left the roadway and struck the tree. Police believe speed and failure to drive within a single lane contributed to the crash.

For the rest of May, and especially over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, Maryland State Police from the Bel Air Barrack say they plan to be out in force on traffic details, with a special focus on people who drink and drive as well as those who aren't wearing seat belts. In a press release issued recently, the state police said they want "to remind everyone that buckling up is the single most effective thing you can do to protect yourself in a motor vehicle collision. " The enforcement effort focusing on people not wearing seat belts goes by the name "Click It or Ticket," and has been under way since the beginning of the month.

Tens of thousands of lives have been saved over the years because Americans more routinely wear seat belts and don't drive drunk. But there are other public health threats from those who text while driving or overdose on prescription drugs. That's why a group of researchers began looking at which prevention measures work and who is using them across the country to stem the rate of injuries of all kinds. Injuries are the third-leading cause of death for adults and the biggest killer of young people.

A two-vehicle accident in northwestern Baltimore County Friday morning seriously injured five people, including two young children. The Baltimore County Police Department Crash Team responded at 8:18 a.m. to the crash at the intersection of Wards Chapel and Liberty roads, near the Carroll County line at Liberty Reservoir. It took about 20 minutes to free all the victims from a Ford Explorer. Rescue units from Carroll County also responded. The Explorer driver, traveling east on Liberty Road, had turned left into the path of a westbound dump truck, police said.

Your Intrepid One was cruising near Calvert Hall College High School in Towson when a school bus full of youngsters crossed in front of a car pulling out of a parking lot at Loch Raven Middle School.The bus came to an abrupt stop, and many of the passengers jerked forward. No one was hurt -- so it seemed -- and the bus proceeded seconds later.But it made us wonder: Without safety belts, what's to keep these kids from getting injured in an accident?We regularly get calls and letters from readers complaining about the safety of school buses not equipped with seat belts.

Cheree Hippler thought she was getting a ticket yesterday when Sgt. Beverly McGough ordered her to pull her car into a small parking lot on the campus of Anne Arundel Community College.But Sergeant McGough, a campus security officer, didn't stop Ms. Hippler for speeding or breaking any other laws. She stopped her with a reward for wearing her seat belt -- a $10 gift certificate for gas at a nearby Shell station."I thought I was getting pulled over for speeding," said Ms. Hippler, a 19-year-old freshman.

The two brightly colored rubber bands that Orioles catcher Michael Ohlman wears around his right wrist — one orange and the other green — serve as a constant reminder. They remind him of two high school friends, Brett Wagner and Josh Rogers, who died in an automobile accident 10 weeks ago. They also remind Ohlman to always wear his seat belt when he gets into a car. The bands read "Josh and Brett: Forever our Light. " "[They] died on Christmas," Ohlman said. "They weren't wearing their seat belts, so these [bracelets]

A 5-year-old boy died Wednesday after the car he was riding in with his family was rear-ended on a Baltimore Beltway on-ramp, police said. Shortly before 3 p.m., an SUV rear-ended a sedan carrying two adults and two children on the ramp from northbound Interstate 83 to the inner loop of Interstate 695, police said. Cars were braking suddenly on the ramp, police said, and a chain reaction ensued, causing two additional cars to be rear-ended. Jake Owen and his sister, Alexandra Owen, 9, were flown to the pediatric trauma unit at Johns Hopkins Children's Center, police said.