2 rural lawmakers fail to upend seat-belt bill

The Senate tentatively approved a bill that would make not wearing a seat belt a primary offense Monday.

SB71 would allow police officers to stop drivers not wearing a seat belt, regardless of age, in hopes that more people would wear a seat belt, sponsoring Sen. Karen Hale, D-Salt Lake City, said. Passage of the law would also guarantee Utah an additional $6.4 million in federal funding for transportation safety improvements.

"When it comes to responsibility, unbelted occupants oftentimes injure other passengers," Hale said. "The costs of increased deaths and injuries because of unbelted drivers are costs borne by all of us."

Rural Sens. Bill Hickman, R-St. George, and Leonard Blackham, R-Moroni, tried to upend the bill by first applying the requirement to drivers over 65, and then by removing already existing language that makes it a primary offense for drivers under 19. The amendments failed, however, on a voice vote, and the bill passed unamended 19-9.

"Every time I get in the car and don't buckle up, I'm willfully breaking the law," Blackham said. "Most people in my community don't like the seat-belt laws, and with this bill we're making them lawbreakers."