Seat-Belt Statement Wrong

John LaMonte stated that Utah's secondary seat-belt law results in higher auto insurance rates than if we had a primary seat-belt law (Readers' Forum, Feb. 28). I was intrigued, so I checked. According to insure.com's list of average auto insurance rates by state and the 2004 list of states with primary, secondary or no seat- belt laws, the average auto insurance cost for states with primary seat-belt laws is $822.69; the cost for states with secondary seat- belt laws is $741.24; the cost for New Hampshire with no seat-belt law is $713.15.

It appears that while sounding reasonable on the surface, Mr. LaMonte's argument doesn't hold water against even a cursory examination of empirical evidence.

John Solomon

Murray

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