The potential price of not buckling up

When you have a 15-year-old daughter who can't wait to drive -- she knows the exact date in 2008 when she can start -- stories like today's piece on this accident in Colerain Township chill you.

"Three teens were trapped inside the car with the lifeless bodies of their two friends as they waited for emergency crews to rescue them," wrote Enquirer reporters Quan Truong and Cliff Radel. The photo shows twisted metal that used to be a car. Miraculously, three of the five in the car survived, including the two boys in the front seat.

Well, maybe it wasn't so miraculous. Both the boys were wearing seat belts. The deceased girls weren't. Perhaps it wouldn't have made a difference, but that seems unlikely.

So, I'm thinking about this and watching the "Today" show this morning. Matt Lauer is interviewing presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the back seat of a moving car. Neither man is wearing a seat belt. This is only weeks after New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine was nearly killed in a crash because he wasn't wearing a belt. Lauer apologizes after the piece and reads a statement from the Romney campaign. The gist: Sometimes Mitt forgets. Click here to see the interview.

What was everyone involved thinking, particularly following Corzine's accident? It's so stupid, I immediately wonder if Romney has the judgment skills to make the decisions a president has to make. And I think about how my wife and I have to constantly remind some of my daughter's friends to buckle up. If you're a regular seat-belt user, you know that forgetting to buckle is as unlikely as not turning on the ignition key.

Don't tell me belts aren't cool, or they bother you, or that it's a matter of your individual liberty. Here's how I feel at this moment: I want police to start ticketing every single car they see where people aren't wearing seat belts. I want the parents of these 14-year-old girls in Colerain Township to not have to bury their daughters.