However, if a leading traffic safety group, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, gets its wish, all 50 states would enact primary seat belt laws -- allowing police officers to pull someone over and cite them for not buckling up.

The group urged Congress last week to withhold some federal highway funding from states without primary seat belt laws, which it says save lives.

To get more people to fasten their seat belts, the state will have to do more than pass a primary seat belt law, said Bill Moerschbacher, a supervisor for Penn State University Police.

"You have to look at education, too. A law in itself isn't going to do much. In a way, you have to change some attitudes," Moerschbacher said.

About 75 to 80 percent of State College motorists wear their seat belts, according to traffic studies conducted by the State College Police Department, said Sgt. Scott Ohs.

"It comes from education. There's just so much more of a push nowadays to wear seat belts," Ohs said.

The State College numbers are consistent with the national average of 79 percent, said Rich Kirkpatrick, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT).

Pennsylvania's secondary law, along with the nationwide "Click it or Ticket" program, has helped raise the state's seat belt usage rate from about 69 percent in 1998 to 79 percent last year, Kirkpatrick said.

"In Pennsylvania we made clear -- two tickets, two fines," Kirkpatrick said.

In fact, some states with primary seat belt laws have usage rates lower than Pennsylvania's current rate, he said.

Changing Pennsylvania's seatbelt laws from primary to secondary creates some controversy. Issues surrounding civil liberties have added to the argument against primary laws, he said.

To change the state's current law, new legislation would have to pass through Gov. Ed Rendell, who has not yet taken a position on the issue, Kirkpatrick said.

"In the meantime, we feel, here at PennDOT, that we're having a lot of success with the secondary law and the public education program," Kirkpatrick said.

Seat belt citations are not often issued in State College. But if Pennsylvania adopts the primary seat belt law, more seat belt citations are likely to follow, Ohs said.

Gigi Meyer (graduate-nutrition) said she feels safer wearing a seat belt. "I grew up always wearing my seat belt, so it's just instinct," Meyer said.

The primary seat belt law would also encourage drivers to insist that passengers buckle up as well, Meyer said.

But education and enforcement would determine the effectiveness of the primary law, Moerschbacher said.

"We would definitely stop for it. There's no question about that," he said.

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety is composed of insurance companies, agents and consumer, health and safety groups, according to their Web site (www.saferoads.org ).