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The Utah Highway Patrol has pulled over more than 5,000 motorists for not wearing seat belts in the two months since a new, tougher law made that easier — more than doubling such traffic stops . And officers are already catching scores of repeat violators.

Showing how stubbornly some Utahns refuse to buckle up, UHP has managed to issue 70 full citations under the new law. Such tickets can be written only if a driver received a first-time warning — so those violators have been pulled over at least twice since HB79 became law on May 12.

"There are a lot of people out there who say, 'I don't care what the law says, I'm not going to buckle up,'" said the new law's author, Rep. Lee Perry, R-Perry, who is also a Highway Patrol lieutenant.

But worse than all that, says UHP spokesman Todd Royce, is that "still over 50 percent of fatal crashes involve the driver or one of the passengers not wearing seat belts."

The new law makes failure to wear a seat belt a primary offense, meaning officers can stop and cite people for the lapse. Before HB79 passed, Utah had a "secondary" law for those 18 and older. A $45 ticket could be issued only when an officer stopped a vehicle for another reason.

The new law allows issuing only a warning on the first offense. On the second offense, the $45 fine also can be waived if the offender completes an online, 30-minute safety course.

Utah Department of Public Safety data requested by The Tribune shows the Highway Patrol has made 5,350 stops involving seat belts since the new law took effect. The department said that included issuing 70 citations and 5,280 warnings.

During the same period last year, the patrol made 2,310 stops that involved a seat-belt violation.

"We're pleased that troopers are stopping more cars for seat belts and are educating the public," Royce said. But he adds that not wearing a seat belt "is still the biggest reason for fatal crashes."

So, he added, "We're going to continue to stop cars" to try to change that.

With the law, Perry said, "I've seen more people wearing seat belts." But he also is disheartened at how many deaths and injuries still involve people who don't buckle up. He personally investigated three such crashes in the past two weeks.

One was in Logan where five unbuckled Utah State University athletes were seriously injured when their sport utility vehicle was T-boned by a semi.

"If everyone in that SUV had been wearing seat belts, there's a very good chance that three of them would have walked away with very minor injuries compared to what they sustained," Perry said.

"I think some of the injuries in that crash were caused by the bodies of those who were not seat belted hitting the others in the car with them," he said. "You are 40 percent more likely to injure someone else in the car if you are not wearing a seat belt. That's what I saw in the Utah State crash."

He investigated another accident in which an unbuckled woman was killed in a head-on crash in Logan Canyon. The driver in the other car, who was wearing a seat belt, survived — and Perry said odds are the woman killed "would have survived had she had her seat belt on."

In another accident he investigated, an unbuckled man was ejected during a truck crash on Interstate 15. "He was injured, but it would not have been as serious if he had been buckled in."

Perry said he is tired of seeing such accidents constantly, and said other troopers are as well.

"We've still got a lot of people not wearing seat belts and that's why the number of traffic stops are up. I expect to see the numbers stay high until we get the message out," he said.

"The longer this goes on, the more officers are out there pulling people over and educating them," he said. "I think we'll start to see, hopefully, a reduction in serious injury and death."