Seat belt bill clears another House hurdle

Why won’t you fasten your seat belt?

Oh, you do?

In Missouri, 24.8 percent of all drivers didn’t last year, an increase of 2.2 percentage points over 2005. Seven of the 15 people killed in traffic accidents last year in Columbia weren’t wearing seat belts, according to Missouri State Highway Patrol records.

Supporters say a bill approved by the House Transportation Committee on Tuesday could turn those numbers around.

After more than 90 minutes of often tearful testimony from the families and friends of accident victims, and from medical workers and a hospital chaplain, the committee voted 7-1 to approve a bill that would permit police officers to stop vehicles if the occupants are not buckled up.

Current law allows police to write a $10 ticket for not wearing a seat belt, but only if an officer notices the violation after making a traffic stop for another reason. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Neal St. Onge, R-Ellisville, would also require anyone for whom there is a seat belt to wear it. Current law only requires seat belts for those in the front seats.

Of 500 Missouri traffic laws, only the seat belt law has secondary status.

“What prompted us to want to pass this legislation was the amount of lives we could save,” St. Onge said.

According to a pamphlet published by the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety, the new law would save about 90 lives per year and prevent more than 1,000 serious injuries.

“In other states with primary safety belt laws, we have noticed an increase (in seat belt use) from 10 to 15 (percent),” said Dale Findlay, executive director of the Missouri Safety Council.

Missouri has about topped out on what it can achieve through a secondary seat belt law, Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Tim Hull said.

“According to past seat belt surveys, the maximum you can get from a secondary safety belt law is about 80 percent use,” Hull said. “Other states with primary laws see safety belt use above 90 percent.”

It’s not the first time anyone has tried to pass such a bill in Missouri. Since the secondary safety belt law was passed in 1985, “six or seven serious attempts have been made to get the law changed,” Findlay said.

So why has there been so much resistance?

“People tell us that it’s an infringement on freedom,” St. Onge said. “I don’t buy into that.”

Others are concerned with racial profiling. “I don’t want to give law enforcement another opportunity to stop African-Americans,” said Mary Ratliff, local NAACP president and member of the National NAACP Board of Directors.

A Republican from a rural district cast the lone vote against the bill Tuesday, but the Black Caucus now supports it.

Rep. Robin Wright-Jones, the Black Caucus interim chairwoman, said there are still concerns about racial profiling. Caucus members decided that the possible benefits of getting more Missourians

to wear seat belts won out, said Wright-Jones, D-St. Louis.

Rep. Brian Munzlinger, who cast the only “no” vote, said he makes sure his family members wear seat belts but believes that it should remain a choice. He said a poll he took of his constituents showed that two-thirds of them agree with him.

But the bill’s supporters are well-armed with numbers.

People injured in car crashes “are a burden to the system, and 25 percent of those costs are picked up by the public,” Findlay, with the Missouri Safety Council, said.

The savings in insurance premiums, government services, hospitals fees, rehabilitation services and police and fire department costs are estimated at $231 million, and the state could get another $16 million in federal funds for transportation needs, according to the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety.

St. Onge said he was optimistic about the bill’s chances of becoming law this year. “I get calls every day from people wanting to see how they could help this law go into effect,” he said.

Lt. Pat Hawkins, a veteran of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department, told the committee Tuesday that he has seen people die in apparently minor accidents and others — including his own daughter — live through horrific crashes. The difference between life and death often comes down to the click of a seat belt.

He said a seat belt saved his daughter’s life when she was in a small car involved in an accident with a tractor-trailer and a large utility truck. He responded to the accident, and recalled fearing the worst as he approached the car.

“I got up to the scene,” he said, “and the most wonderful thing I heard was my daughter screaming.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.