The U.S. Department of Transportation and the Governors Highway Safety Association launched their annual Click It or Ticket campaign today, promising stepped-up enforcement of seat belt laws in those states wise enough to have them. Maryland is one of those states.

One of the problems with such laws is that they become more difficult to enforce after dark. Not surprisingly, seat belt use tends to decline at night and auto death go up.

The GHSA  released some statistics  today illustrating just how dangerous it is to skip seat belts. At a time when seat belt use is running about 84 percent overall, about 55 percent of passenger vehicle occupants who were  killed in 2008 weren't using them. And of the 12,000 vehicle occupants killed in night  crashes, two-thirds of them weren't using seat belts. In Illinois, more than three-quarters of those killed during the early morning hours were not restrained.

Looked at another way, the numbers are an especially persuasive advertisement for seat belts. If seat belt users account for 84 percent of the people in cars, but only 45 percent of those killed in crashes, that certainly suggests they work. 

Or maybe the numbers  suggest we get dumber after dark.