ON NEW YEAR'S DAY, Massachusetts became the third state in the nation to require the use of seatbelts. Public officials predicted that the so-called seatbelt law will lead to fewer automobile accidents and fewer injuries.

Less than a month later, a petition drive led by WRKO radio talk show host Jerry Williams has gathered enough signatures to challenge the law by referendum. Williams and his followers contend that the seatbelt law in fringes on citizens' personal rights.

Extremism in the defense of liberty may be no vice, as an old politician once said, but Jerry Williams et. al. carry the concept of liberty to an insupportable extreme.

It might be inappropriate for the state to force citizens to act in their own welfare, but it is not inappropriate to compel them to respect the welfare of others. The seatbelt law advances more than personal safety; it advances public safety. When you get behind the wheel, you take not only your own life into your hands, but also the lives of countless others.

Seatbelts have been shown to reduce the likelihood of a driver losing control of his vehicle. Moreover, injuries and accidents that could have been avoided affect us all in the form of higher insurance premiums and medical expenses paid with public taxes.

Jerry Williams and like-minded individuals who don't know what's good for them would rather take their chances than buckle up. But when the statistics catch up with them, the rest of us share the consequences.