PORTLAND (AP) – A state panel is studying Mainers’ driving patterns in hopes increasing seat belt usage and cutting down on traffic fatalities.

While the state’s vehicular fatality rate is below the national average, the number of motorists killed in Maine has risen for two straight years – leading to renewed calls for stricter seat belt laws and for drivers to slow down.

“We could save a lot of lives without spending money if people would use their seat belts,” said Gerald Audibert, chairman of the Maine Transportation Safety Coalition and safety management coordinator with the Maine Department of Transportation. “Our No. 1 priority for the (coalition) is increasing seat belt use.”

The coalition is examining ways to reduce fatal crashes among young and elderly drivers, and those resulting from cars going off the road. It is also analyzing crash data in hopes of changing unsafe driving behavior.

The coalition is made up of representatives from state and federal transportation agencies, law enforcement, insurance companies and other interests.

It plans to release its analysis, conclusions and action plan this winter.

“What I see coming across my desk is young people dying and elderly people dying and those are issues that need to be addressed,” said Carl Hallman, an analyst with the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety and a member of the coalition. “We take these statistics and we look at them and find out where the problems are.”

The most common driving behavior contributing to fatal accidents in Maine from 2000 to 2002 was unsafe speed, which played a role in 199 of the 550 deaths over those three years.

A speed enforcement initiative on the Maine Turnpike last summer and fall resulted in about 2,000 drivers being ticketed for going an average of 85 mph; 44 were cited for traveling 95 mph or faster.

“Everybody is always in a rush,” Audibert said. “People aren’t concentrating on their driving, and if they’re not keeping an eye on the roadside or road ahead, it’s pretty difficult to react.”

Excessive speed has become a national problem even as seat belt use has improved, says Jonathan Adkins, a spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association, a national highway safety group.

“Also, we find when drivers are speeding they’re also doing other unsafe behaviors. They tend to drive more aggressively,” Adkins said.

Maine’s fatal crash rate – the number of highway deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled – stood at 1.34 in 2002. That’s up from 1.31 in 2001, but is still below the national rate of 1.51.

Federal highway safety agencies have set a goal of achieving a highway fatality rate of 1.0 by 2008, which in Maine would represent 60 lives saved.

But that likely will require more people to buckle up, Audibert says.

About half of the 196 people who died in Maine car crashes in 2002 were not wearing seat belts. Half of those people probably would be alive today if they had been belted, Audibert said.

AP-ES-02-09-04 0215EST