Kathy Tompkins always wears her seat belt. But she doesn't want police to pull over drivers solely because they aren't buckled up.

"It's a privacy thing," said Tompkins, a Jackson resident since 1998. "What is going to be next? You aren't sitting right in your seat? Where do you stop?"

Tompkins is among the 60 percent of Wyoming voters who would oppose legislation that would allow police to stop a car and issue a ticket solely because an occupant isn't wearing a seat belt, according to a Star-Tribune poll. Currently in Wyoming - a state wear seat belt usage is below the national average - police can give tickets to people who don't buckle up, but officers can't stop a car for that reason.

To conduct the poll, Mason-Dixon Polling and Research of Washington D.C. interviewed 625 registered voters by telephone from Jan. 18 through 21. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

For some Wyomingites, like Ann Hines of Casper, opposition to stronger seat belt regulations comes down to a matter on personal freedom.

"Seat belts should be up to the individual person," said Hines, a retired school teacher. "You read that people are saved by seat belts, and you read that people who would have been all right if they hadn't been wearing a seat belt."

The poll found that women (41 percent) were more likely than men (31 percent) to support a stronger seat belt law, although a majority of both groups oppose traffic stops for seat belt infractions.

Marcia Federer is part of the minority of Wyoming voters who would support such a law. She says it's a matter of safety.

"A lot of the fatality accidents are caused because people aren't wearing seat belts," said Federer, a rancher who lives in Cheyenne. "They might be alive if they had been wearing them."

Federer says she always buckles up and makes her grandchildren do the same.

"I'm not driving away until you put your seat belt on," she said. "It's just what we do."

Politically, independents (71 percent) have the greatest opposition to a stronger seat belt law, followed by Republicans (65 percent). A small majority of Wyoming Democrats would support such a regulation.

Green River construction worker Wil Allen is one of the many political independents who don't want to give law enforcement new powers to hand out seat belt tickets. He always wears his seat belt on highways, but feels confident to go without it on city streets, where traffic moves slower.

"When you are doing 25, 30 mph in town, everyone else can do the same thing," he said. "It's relatively safe."

However, Allen said he would favor giving police the power to pull over teenage drivers who aren't wearing seat belts.

"Teenagers need to be buckled up until they learn to drive properly because of experience," he said.

Seat belt use in Wyoming is on the rise, but trails the 81 percent national average, according to a Wyoming Department of Transportation survey. The survey, conducted in June, found 70 percent of the state's driver's buckle up. That's up 11 percentage points over the previous year.

Reach Joshua Wolfson at (307) 266-0582 or at josh.wolfson@trib.com.