Sergeant Jake Angle spoke at the annual Worth County Farm Bureau meeting Thursday night to farm bureau members along with Worth County FFA students. He reported that fatalities were up 50% in Troop H, up to 22. Of these, 16 were in the vehicle; out of those 16, 14 were not wearing their seat belt. He said that the Patrol was pushing for a primary seat belt law in Missouri. Mr. Angle said that in Washington, with a primary seat belt law and a $124 fine, has a 98% seat belt usage rate and had 146 fatalities in 2013. Missouri does not have a primary seat belt law; they have a $10 fine. Missouri's compliance is from 80-83%, which is higher than in recent years, but is still among the lowest in the nation. There were 758 fatalities in 2013. "That is the size of a small town in Missouri," said Angle. He said that Buchanan County had passed a primary seat belt law in its county, meaning that its officers can stop you if they see you're not wearing a seat belt. The fine is still $10.
Mr. Angle said it also reduced the rate of serious injury by 75%. He said that a common myth was that there were situations where a seat belt would kill someone; he said that in 21 years of working accidents, he had never had that happen. By contrast, back in 1999, he and his daughter were in their car when he was driving distracted and pulled into Highway 36 in front of a car traveling at 60 miles per hour. He overturned 1 1/2 times, but because he had a seat belt on and his daughter was in a child safety restraint, they were able to walk away with minor injuries. He said that experience was an eye-opener, and said that distracted driving was the main cause of accidents for ages 15-24. He said that people should take their cell phones, turn them on silent, and put them in their glove boxes. He said that if you take 4.6 seconds to send a text message, you would travel the length of a football field, a lot of distance to take one's eyes off the road.
Missouri has a texting while driving law for people under 21 years. However, Mr. Angle said most other states now have a universal cell phone law. It is already against the law in Missouri for semi-truck drivers to use cell phones.
Following the presentation, Mr. Angle took everyone outside to a demonstration device called a "Seat Belt Converter." It is a device that simulates a head-on collision at 4-5 miles per hour. The impact was still very hard. "I once worked an accident where a farmer in a tractor was going 30 miles per hour and not wearing his seat belt," said Mr. Angle. "He ran off the road and he was thrown from the tractor and killed."
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