House bill would allow traffic stops over seat belts

State lawmakers are looking at legislation that might change the minds of those reluctant to buckle up.

House Bill 90, introduced by state Rep. Neal St. Onge, R-Ballwin, to the Missouri House of Representatives would allow law enforcement officers to stop motorists to give them tickets for not wearing seat belts.

Missouri's current law requires drivers and front-seat passengers to buckle up, but a citation can only be issued if police stop a driver for another moving violation. Of the more than 500 traffic offenses in state statutes, the seat belt law is the only one restricted to what is called secondary enforcement instead of primary enforcement. A violation carries a $10 fine.

Legislators will discuss the bill in the transportation subcommittee Tuesday. It has the support of the Missouri Department of Transportation.

With 39 co-signers and grassroots efforts to get the word out, St. Onge is optimistic the bill will pass. He said supporters have promoted the bill through visits to insurance companies and physicians, two groups affected by traffic fatalities.

Studies done by MoDOT show a primary seat belt law could save 90 lives in the state a year, St. Onge said. "Just imagine 90 people going home to their families who wouldn't get to go home."

According to MoDOT, there were 112 traffic fatalities in Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Madison, Mississippi, Perry and Scott counties from 2003 to 2005. Of those, 81 were people not wearing a seat belt. In Cape Girardeau County, 18 of 25 people killed in traffic accidents were not wearing seat belts.

A 2005 traffic study concluded that a Missouri driver had a one in 32 chance of being killed in an accident if not wearing a safety belt compared to one in 1,017 for a seat-belted driver.

MoDOT director Pete K. Rahn urged people to contact their legislators to support the bill. A primary seat belt law would also prevent more than 1,000 serious injuries annually and save an estimated $231 million each year in costs associated with traffic crashes, he said.

"We are losing an obscene number of Missourians to traffic crashes," Rahn said. "A primary safety belt law will save lives, and it is the right thing to do."

Supporters of the bill cite higher seat belt usage in states that have enacted a primary seat belt law. Illinois, for example, enacted a primary seat belt law in 2003, when seat belt use was at 76 percent, according to studies done by the Illinois Department of Transportation. The rate rose to 83 percent one year later and in 2006 was at 88 percent.

Cape Girardeau police Lt. John Davis, who heads the coalition's southeast region, said 75 percent of Missourians buckle up, compared to the national average of 82 percent. The Missouri rate dropped from 77 percent in 2005.

The coalition's goal, he said, is to reduce serious injuries and fatalities throughout Missouri to 1,000 or fewer by the year 2008 and that a primary seat belt law will help make that happen.

"People say wearing a seat belt is a personal choice, but it affects lives of other folks," he said. Unbelted people not only are at a high risk of being ejected from a vehicle during an accident but can become a "human bullet" inside the car during an impact, colliding with other passengers as they are thrown about.

Davis argues a minor fender bender can become a serious accident if a driver is not belted. "They may lose control of the car and fall out," he said. "Now we have a 2,500-pound weapon out there."

carel@semissourian.com

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