Does the freedom to neglect your own safety

outweigh your responsibility to show a little

common sense?

Where use of our public roadways is concerned, society has decided that the answer is “no.” And with stricter law enforcement at hand for motorists and bicyclists, it seems worthwhile to remind readers as much.

This month will see the first actual enforcement of the island’s helmet ordinance, which covers bicyclists, skateboarders, roller-bladers, scooter riders and folks astride “hoofed conveyances” (legalese, we presume, for “horses”) on public roads, trails and sidewalks. The ordinance was passed by the city council last spring, but enforcement was delayed for a year to allow a public awareness campaign and the placement of “Helmet Law In Effect” signs on some roadways.

We’re not really sure what “awareness” has taken place (the Squeaky Wheels group is lobbying to see a bike safety program as part of the school PE curriculum, which we support, but that’s still just a proposal), and the signs have yet to go up.

Bainbridge Police Chief Bill Cooper told us this week that his department will continue to focus on “education first.” Still, under the ordinance, failure to wear a helmet can now earn one a written warning, followed by a $10 civil fine. You’ve been warned.

And to motorists: Beginning in June, police around the state will have the authority to make traffic stops based solely on a driver’s failure to wear a seatbelt. While the wisdom of such safety restraints seems self-evident, or at least a matter of statistics, we asked Chief Cooper (a longtime crash investigator) for his thoughts.

Turns out that a decade ago, Cooper and colleagues from the Washington State Patrol reconstructed three years’ worth of fatal crashes in Washington. The purpose was to look at effectiveness from a different perspective – to determine why some collisions claim lives even when restraints are used.

The findings showed that in nearly all such fatalities, the crashes were simply “not survivable” – a vehicle was crushed or torn apart on impact, or there was intrusion into the passenger compartment from another vehicle or debris. In a handful of cases, restraints weren’t used properly (most of these were child seats), and in several others, frail elderly victims succumbed to injuries that younger drivers would have survived.

“What we concluded was, safety restraints work,” Cooper told us, “and they work very well.”

With the advent of officers’ new latitude for vehicle stops, the Kitsap County Traffic Safety Task Force has taken up the cause with an education campaign they’re calling “Click It or Ticket.”

If a safety belt, air bag or child car seat has protected you in a serious motor vehicle collision, the task force wants to hear about it. Car-crash survivors are asked to share their stories, to show how seatbelts save lives and reduce injuries.

To be recognized as a survivor, call Shirley Wise at

(360) 478-5239, or go online to www.ci.bremerton.wa.us (click on “Police,” then click on “Traffic Safety”). Local law enforcement agencies will hold a “Buckle-Up Survivor Superstar” event at Kitsap Mall on May 4, and we think it would be neat to have Bainbridge Island represented – by someone who is still a neighbor, rather than a statistic.

If a seatbelt saved your life, give the task force a call – you could be hero for day, just for using your head.