Robert Williams had seen enough. The chief of the state police and a 30-year veteran had seen enough mangled bodies in car wrecks. Enough distraught and hysterical mothers and fathers.
Enough lives that could have been easily saved with the click of seatbelt.
“As a trooper, I have knocked on more than one door to tell them ‘Your child is dead,’” said Col. Williams.
So starting in January, he took a fresh, hard line towards seat belt enforcement in hopes it might mean fewer Mainers – especially teenagers and young adults – are killed in car accidents because they hadn’t buckled up. But questions are being raised whether his dictate has gone too far and become a quota.