Seatbelts big factor in P.E.I. fatalities

About three-quarters of fatalities on P.E.I. roads were people not wearing seatbelts, despite 95 per cent of people on the Island buckling up when they get in a vehicle.

'It's such a tragic event and it ripples into a community.' Graham Miner, registrar of motor vehicles

RCMP have investigated the deaths of 14 people in motor vehicle accidents in 2008, an unusually high number. In addition, two died in a road accident in Charlottetown. RCMP worry this year could be worse even than 2004. That was the worst year on record for road fatalities, with 28 people dead.

"It's sad and it's disappointing. You know how this impacts on family and friends and people who are victims," Graham Miner, P.E.I.'s registrar of motor vehicles, told CBC News Friday.

'[It's] just not down from the person who's the fatality, it's those who are left behind, and it's such a tragic event and it ripples into a community so much."

Miner would like to avoid topping the 2004 numbers. He'll now look through the accident files to try and find out why, with all the education on seatbelts over the past two decades, some people still don't get the message.

"Everything will be looked at to say how does one get at this, and what are the commonalities within these fatalities?" he said.

If commonalities are found, it may suggest ways of convincing some of those remaining five per cent to put on a seatbelt.

Miner is also looking at the Transport Canada data on spot checks. One thing he's already discovered is Islanders who drive pickup trucks are less likely to buckle up than those who drive cars.