Seat belts. For the vast majority of us, putting on a seat belt when entering the car is second nature.

But for some, apparently, the act remains optional — and that’s leading to fatal results.

In Ohio over the Fourth of July weekend, 10 people died in car crashes, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

Of those 10 fatalities, six were not wearing seat belts.

The issue goes deeper. According to the Columbus Dispatch, during the Fourth of July weekend troopers issued 2,286 seat belt and child safety seat violations. How is that possible in 2025?

In the Mahoning Valley, a recent compliance study on seat belt use from the Ohio Department of Public Safety and the University of Akron found only an 81.1% compliance rate in Trumbull County and an even worse 76.7% compliance rate in Mahoning County.

The problem is not isolated to Ohio. In West Virginia, the latest figures for seat belt use come from the end of 2024, where a 91.98% usage rate was recorded by the West Virginia Governor’s Highway Safety Program. That means 8% of West Virginians — that’s more than 100,000 people — don’t wear seat belts on a regular basis.

It’s 2025. Decades of data is available showing seat belts save lives. So why?

Buckle up, folks. It’s really simple. It saves lives.