Utah in safety slow lane

WASHINGTON — Utah is creeping along in the slow lane when it comes to highway safety laws, according to a state-by-state report card issued Thursday by a consortium of insurance, consumer, health, safety and law enforcement groups.

So that organization, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, called for the Utah Legislature to accelerate into the fast lane by enacting such laws as:

• Allowing police to pull over and ticket any car where anyone is not wearing a seat belt;

• Requiring all motorcycle riders to wear helmets;

• Plugging loopholes in booster seat laws.

"Unfortunately, this report comes with some bad news, and then some very bad news," group vice president Jacqueline S. Gillan said about its review of how many states have enacted what it says are 16 key highway safety laws.

Utah has adopted 11 of the 16, but not some of what the group says are the most vital ones.

"There isn't a single state that we looked at that had 16 of these life-saving laws in place," she said. "And only a few states were in the 'passing lane,' such as California, North Carolina and Washington, because these states had most laws and a primary seat belt enforcement law."

She added, "More states were 'stopped on the shoulder.' Some of these states were Minnesota, Mississippi, Alaska, Ohio, Rhode Island, Wyoming. For the most part, these states had the weakest adult occupancy restraint laws, they lacked critically important drunk driving laws and they had serious gaps in their teen driving laws."

Utah — and most states — were in what the group called the "slow lane." Utah was there mostly because it lacks a "primary seat belt law," which would allow police to stop and ticket motorists directly for not wearing a seat belt.

In Utah, seat belt violations are a "secondary offense" for anyone older than age 19, meaning they can be ticketed only if they were pulled over for some other offense. However, such violations are a "primary offense" for anyone 19 and younger who is not belted.

"In 2002, more than half of the people killed in motor vehicle crashes (nationally) were unbelted. If all passenger vehicle occupants wore a seat belt, more than 7,000 lives would have been saved. And primary enforcement seat belts (laws) help us to increase seat belt usage," Gillan said.