Senate President Jim King, who already didn't like the bill, also takes offense at its sponsor's remarks.
By JENNIFER LIBERTO
Published March 5, 2004
TALLAHASSEE - A bill to strengthen enforcement of seat belt laws passed the House on Thursday but will get no further this session after its sponsor accused the Senate of sitting silent while people die.
Senate President Jim King has said he will not support a bill allowing police to pull over and ticket drivers when they see unbuckled passengers. King says it would invite racial profiling.
Under current law, drivers cannot be stopped for failing to wear a belt.
Similar bills have failed many times over the years.
But House member Irving Slosberg is particularly passionate about the bill because his 14-year-old daughter, Dori, was unbuckled when she died in a Palm Beach County traffic accident eight years ago.
"This is a vote for saving people's lives or letting them die," Slosberg, D-Boca Raton, said Thursday morning, just before the House voted 80-39 to pass the bill (HB 15).
The bill will not get to the Senate floor this session, King told U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta on Thursday.
Slosberg's recurring attacks against bill opponents King, R-Jacksonville, and Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, have not helped his cause.
"I only know that for Daniel Webster and Jim King, the blood is on their hands," Slosberg told the Orlando Sentinel in a story Thursday that particularly irked King and Webster, a U.S. Senate candidate.
By late Thursday afternoon, Slosberg's comments had caught the attention of Mineta, who came to Tallahassee to promote the bill. Mineta, a Democrat, canceled a press conference on the seat belt bill with Slosberg, even though he was on the Capitol grounds at the time.
"(Slosberg) did indicate that the blood would be on the hands of the Senate or something to that effect, and it's unfortunate that he made those comments," Mineta said later in a press conference. "I have no problem with meeting Rep. Slosberg. It's just we got jammed on the schedule. But it's unfortunate that he did personalize it in this way."
Both Mineta and King said Slosberg's comments have impeded the bill's chance of progress this session.
"I think he needs to tone down the rhetoric just a tad, because he's not really winning any friends over here by attacking the leadership," King said.
If the bill passes within the next five years, Florida stands to gain a one-time incentive of $37-million in federal transportation dollars to be used for educational programs or construction, Mineta said.
Many members who voted against the bill in the House were black or Hispanic, and raised the profiling issue in debate.
"I truly believe this is a racial profiling bill," said Rep. Gus Barreiro, R-Miami Beach.
Seat belt law requires all front seat passengers and all passengers under 18 years to buckle seat belts.
Gov. Jeb Bush supports the legislation, he said on Thursday.
- Times staff writers Joni James and Alisa Ulferts and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
