Western Branch wants to belt you

FRIENDS, CLASSMATES and teachers of the two girls killed in a horrific crash in Chesapeake two weeks ago are trying to salvage something from that needless accident. They're repeating the mantra for all who will listen: Wear your seat belts.

It can't be stated enough. And it should be heeded by adults as well; they can be just as lax as teenagers. Though seat belts won't always prevent deaths, they increase the chances of survival and can lessen the severity of injuries.

It's easy to ignore such warnings, and to think grown-ups are being needless nannies when spouting them. Until lives are cut short.

That's why the Western Branch High School family - students, faculty and parents - began a drive a few days ago to get young people to pledge to buckle up and to encourage others to do the same. By mid-week, 1,053 of the school's 2,300 students had signed the pledge, said Catherine Albertson. She had taught history to Taylor Hayes, a 16-year-old freshman at the school.

Taylor and Stephanie Barnett, 18, a 2007 graduate of Western Branch, died in the May 31 accident on Interstate 664 near the Bowers Hill interchange. Neither was wearing a seat belt. Taylor was ejected from the car, which had been traveling about 75 mph at the time of the crash.

The only survivor, 15-year-old Jeffrey Prindle, was critically injured. Notably, he was wearing his seat belt. Jeffrey eventually recovered, and he had returned to Western Branch before classes ended this week.

That's eye-opening. The greater Western Branch community wants folks to understand the value of buckling up - and to skip the excuses.

"The student body all loved Taylor," said Albertson, her instructor. "Taylor wanted to be an English teacher. Even though she's passed, this is a way for her to teach." Students and faculty members will be selling bumper stickers for $5 each to remember Taylor and to support the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation; Stephanie Barnett had diabetes. For more information, send an e-mail to

remembertayhay@gmail.com.

Maybe, just maybe, the Chesapeake accident will be a catalyst for state legislators to revisit seat belt laws. In the commonwealth, as in 22 other states, not buckling up is a "secondary offense." In Virginia, motorists and the riders in the front seat can be cited only if police stop the car for another infraction.

Every year, lawmakers introduce bills in the General Assembly to make seat belt usage a so-called "primary offense," meaning law enforcement officials could stop a car if people aren't buckled, says Martha Meade, a spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. "But there's a sense in Virginia of anti-Big Brotherism," she told me, explaining the repeated failure to pass tougher laws.

In previous years, black lawmakers had opposed the bills, too, citing concerns about racial profiling. But this year, Sen. Yvonne Miller, a Norfolk Democrat who's black, voted for an enhanced bill, citing an increase in deaths from vehicle accidents. According to the State Police, 1,012 people were killed in traffic wrecks in Virginia last year, the deadliest since 1981. Some 47 percent weren't using seat belts.

Teens sometimes have a feeling of invincibility when jumping into cars. But adults also fail to buckle up. In 2003, Circuit Judge Duncan Byrd Jr., 60, of Bath County died when he was ejected from his SUV in a traffic accident in that area. He wasn't wearing a seat belt.

In April of this year, a Currituck County man died in rural Virginia Beach when he was ejected from his vehicle. He wasn't wearing a seat belt.

I don't want to diminish the importance of other factors in traffic accidents. Speed and the use of alcohol by drivers are deadly ingredients, too.

Oftentimes, though, wearing a seat belt can mean the difference between life and death. The people at Western Branch High School know that, and they want you to know it, too.

Roger Chesley is associate editor of The Pilot's editorial page. Reach him at (757) 446-2329 or at roger.chesley@

pilotonline.com.