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Tougher seat belt law boosts odds of saving lives

By DIANE STEINLE
Published August 16, 2005

Too many people continue to allow children to ride in motor vehicles without a seat belt. Such carelessness ought to be a crime.

Wait - it is.

Under Florida law it is illegal for any person to operate a motor vehicle unless every passenger younger than 18, regardless of where they are sitting in the vehicle, is restrained by a seat belt or child safety seat.

It isn't just the law; it is common sense. Yet children continue to be killed or injured in traffic accidents because they were not required by the driver to wear their seat belts.

Even sheriff's deputies, who see a lot in their jobs, were shaking their heads after responding to a recent Dunedin accident in which six children ages 3 weeks to 10 years had been riding in a car without wearing seat belts.

All six children were injured, four of them seriously, when the Dunedin resident driving the Kia Sportage rolled through a stop sign and was hit by a Jeep Wrangler, sheriff's officials said. The impact caused the Kia to roll over.

The Kia driver was given six citations for violating the seat belt law. Fines are levied for each citation given. In Pinellas, the fine for a seat belt violation is $70.50.

Under a change in Florida's seat belt law that became effective July 1, law enforcement officers can now pull over a vehicle if they merely observe someone who looks to be younger than 18 riding in a car without a seat belt.

Before the law was changed, officers had to see some other type of violation before they could pull over a car and ticket occupants for a seat belt violation. Under Florida's new "primary" seat belt law that protects those younger than 18, officers no longer need an excuse to pull a motorist over and cite them for seat belt violations.

The Florida Legislature made that change in its last session at the urging of state Rep. Irv Slosberg of Boca Raton. Slosberg's 14-year-old daughter was killed in an accident in which she was not wearing a seat belt.

Now officers who see a child standing up or jumping around in a moving vehicle - doesn't that give you chills? - can do more than shake their heads. By pulling over that thoughtless driver and delivering a ticket and a stern lecture, they might save a child's life.

[Last modified August 16, 2005, 01:29:18]