$6 million at stake with seat-belt law

Utah stands to lose more than $6 million in federal transportation funding unless state leaders shift their long-held opposition to allowing drivers to be stopped for not wearing a seat belt.

That money is a lure that Sen. Karen Hale, D-Salt Lake, hopes can entice some of her Republican counterparts to vote for SB71, which is before the Senate Transportation, Public Utilities and Technology Committee this morning and would make not wearing a seat belt a primary offense for all drivers.

"Between the saving of lives and savings of money, a primary seat belt law is important to our state," Hale said.

Drivers 19 years and older can now be ticketed for not using a seat belt only if they are stopped by police for other moving violations. Hale said her bill does not create a new law but simply toughens an existing law.

"Seat-belt use is already the law," she said. "It's just the enforcement that is the issue."

Whether that will change, however, will depend heavily on legislators who have long opposed any strengthening of the laws, especially those from rural areas.

One of those, Sen. Tom Hatch, R-Panguitch, said that he does not "prostitute myself for funding" and will work to stop the bill, just as he has in previous years.

Lower usage numbers by rural residents — estimates are that barely more than 50 percent of rural drivers regularly use a seat belt — also did not surprise or concern Hatch.

"In many of these rural areas, we jump in our pickups to drive two or three blocks to accomplish our tasks or get to our fields, and don't put on seat belts," he said. "I'm not saying that's right, but is it the role of state government to tell me how protect myself?"

Rep. Chad Bennion, R-Murray, echoed the sentiment that seat-belt laws are simply too much government intervention. He said it would be no different from the state requiring that everybody have an operating porch light or risk fines because studies show that well-lit areas have less crime.

Last year, Bennion hijacked a House bill that only made technical changes to the seat-belt laws in an attempt to get rid of all seat-belt laws. Although the bill was eventually voted down, the seat-belt fight became a symbolic rallying point for philosophical debates about the role of government.

This session, Bennion did not expect a similar fight in the House, primarily because he did not expect to even get the bill from the Senate.

"You know where the Legislature was last year, and it's the same people this year," he said. "It's pretty clear where the position has been . . . we're going to side with personal responsibility."

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E-mail: jloftin@desnews.com