When are Kansas drivers going to get the message?

It’s discouraging and somewhat shocking to learn in a report this week from the Kansas Department of Transportation that although the percentage of adults using seat belts in Kansas has risen slightly from 68 percent last year to 69 percent this year, the percentage for children 14 and under has dropped from 61 percent to 59 percent.

Kansas law requires child safety seats for children under 4 and seat belts for all children 4 to 13 and all people in the front seat of a vehicle. But the legalities of seat-belt usage seem totally beside the point when the issue is protecting the youngsters in your life and in your car. Accidents can happen any time and, in an instant, an unrestrained child can be fatally injured by being thrown around inside a car or ejected from a vehicle.

Perhaps the laws on seat-belt usage should be toughened, but it seems like the threat of serious or fatal injury – especially to a child in your car – should be reason enough to make sure they are buckled up. Anything else just doesn’t make sense.