BY KRISTA RAMSEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Thick brown hair appears first, then large dark eyes.

You emerge slowly from the back seat of your mother's or aunt's or baby sitter's car, peering covertly out the rear window as small children like to do.

You feel invisible, mysterious. But I have seen you and you have seen me. Your head bobs when the driver hits the brakes and lurches sideways when she turns a corner. At a stop light, you slowly raise two fingers in greeting.

But I cannot make myself wave back. I am not happy to see your face.

I would much rather see only the top of the back of your head, stationary, not swinging for dear life around corners. I would like to note your presence only by a protruding back-seat shoulder harness, slanted firmly across your chest.

Then I would wave to you at a stop light, when our cars pulled up beside each other. I would see you there safe. And the sight of you would make me smile.

Seems like a treat

So many horrible things happen to children today that it seems melodramatic to be haunted by an unrestrained child in an automobile.

Surely, it is only bad people who harm and endanger children, putting them in risk of their life. Children like you are clearly traveling with good people. Grandparents who smile over at me when I pull up beside them. Moms and dads in minivans in the turn lane for movie theaters. Young parents with a car full of kids and exhaustion written all over their faces.

I don't believe that they don't care for you. You are probably the love of their lives. Letting you move freely around the back seat of the car may seem like a treat. Time with you may be in such short supply that they want you on their lap every minute.

Or maybe the seat belt was just the one fight they didn't have the energy to win that day. You dressed yourself, drank all your milk at breakfast, didn't whine at the store, so why nag you about the shoulder harness?

You'll be OK. Just this one time.

But, of course, thousands of kids like you aren't OK without seat belts. They are injured on the way to a friend's house. They die on the way to the pool. ''Little'' slow-speed crashes that should have only given them something to dramatize at dinner, sent them to the hospital instead.

From 1993 to 1996, Children's Hospital Medical Center treated 662 children for serious injuries from car crashes. Of them, 369 were not wearing seat belts. Fourteen of the children did not survive. Of those who lived, the unrestrained children stayed in the hospital almost twice as long as those wearing seat belts.

Nationally, traffic crashes are the No. 1 killer of Americans age 6 to 27. In 1995 in Ohio alone, 303 people under age 21 were killed in automobile crashes, and more than 62,000 young people were injured.

In a given year, half the children who die in auto accidents are not wearing seat belts.

A secondary offense

Right now, police officers do not make traffic stops solely for unused seat belts. It is considered a secondary offense, issued only in conjunction with another violation.

Now some Ohio legislators have introduced a bill that would make violation of the seat belt law a primary offense. Officers could stop drivers for that action alone.

Some people view it as a godsend. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the change could raise seat belt use 12 percent to 17 percent. The U.S. Department of Transportation says it would save more than 9,000 lives annually.

Others view it as a personal intrusion. They don't want the government in their back seat.

Of course, it wouldn't really have to take another law. Just that little thing called personal responsibility.

Mom and Dad could let you walk out of the house with shorts and shirt that don't match, but make sure they win the battle of the seat belt. Grandpa could sit in the back seat beside you and hold your hand all the way to the store. Baby sitters get paid to do things like buckle seat belts.

And whatever scenery you miss out the back window, you'll be able to make up for later. Sometimes you have to settle for the long view.

Krista Ramsey's column appears on Saturdays. Write her at 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202 or fax at 768-8340.

RAMSEY ARCHIVE