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Neighborhood Report

Teen's death inspires push for change in seat belt law

The mom and friends of Katie Marchetti want to make it a primary offense to not wear a seat belt.

By HELEN ANNE TRAVIS
Published April 21, 2006

Lindsay Adkinson, 17, holds the glossy photograph she took of Katie at the beach. Her hair flows over her shoulders, and her perfectly-lined eyes sparkle at the camera.

"She was so pretty," said Lindsay, a junior at Durant High School.

Lindsay and a group of friends sat around a plate of fresh chocolate chip cookies this week at Katie Marchetti's house, remembering.

They talked about the young woman who would always have a smile to share and an exaggerated story to tell.

Katie, 16, and her boyfriend A.J. Lamantia, 20, were coming home from an engagement party on March 3 when her Toyota hit the guard rail on Interstate 75, and then struck a concrete wall on the highway. The force threw Katie from the car.

Katie had been dozing off in the front passenger's seat of her 2006 Toyota Scion and had removed her seat belt.

"They told us after looking at the car that she would have survived if she wore her seat belt," her mother, Laura Marchetti, said.

On Wednesday, Marchetti travels to Tallahassee with a group of Katie's friends from Durant, Bloomingdale, and Newsome high schools in support of a bill that would make it a primary offense for drivers and passengers to not wear a seat belt.

The Hillsborough County Commission also named next Wednesday Click It for Katie Day in honor of her family's effort to change the seat belt law.

Currently under Florida's safety belt law, it is a secondary offense for adult drivers and passengers to ride sans safety belt. That means an officer can't pull over adult drivers simply because they aren't buckled up.

Rep. Irving Slosberg, D-Boca Raton, sponsored the bill. His daughter, Dori, died in an automobile crash at age 14. She too wasn't wearing her seat belt.

Slosberg will host the luncheon that Marchetti and her daughter's friends and supporters will attend Wednesday. She extended an invitation to Gov. Jeb Bush and Marianne Trussell, the Florida Department of Transportation's chief safety officer.

"Many lobbyists and political people have called our house and told us they would meet us at the Capitol," said Marchetti, whose husband, Vincent, is a prominent land use attorney and member of the Tampa Sports Authority, which runs Raymond James Stadium.

"I know enough people in the political circle," she said.

But the bill has met opposition on its journey to the House floor.

"My primary concern is racial profiling," said Rep. Susan Bucher, D-West Palm Beach, who voted against the bill when it passed through the House Transportation Committee.

Opponents are concerned the bill will give police the opportunity to subjectively target members of certain ethnic groups.

"That's stupid they would even say that," said Kaye Sommer, 16, a sophomore at Newsome High School. "We're trying to save lives."

"If people are doing something wrong, they deserve to be pulled over," said Julie Spiker, 17, a junior at Bloomingdale High School.

The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles published a report that broke down by race the number of people cited for seat belt violations in a five-month period.

The report was meant to quell the concerns of Bucher and others opposed to the bill. But the report was unclear and left Bucher confused, she said.

The study showed that African-Americans accounted for 20 percent of all seat belt violations.

But currently they make up about 12 percent of all drivers.

Marchetti and her daughter's friends feel that racial issues shouldn't come into play when lives are at stake.

"I think racial profiling can show up anywhere," Marchetti said.

At her home Tuesday, Marchetti spoke next to a growing pile of permission slips signed by parents of the students going to Tallahassee.

"This is about the kids," Marchetti said.

Lindsay perched on Kaye's knee. Kaye leaned her head on Lindsay's back as tears poured out of her eyes.

"All we want to do is make sure that no one else goes through the pain we've experienced," said Jennifer Johnson, 16, a junior at Durant.

Staff writer Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler contributed to this report. Helen Anne Travis can be reached at 661-2439 or at htravis@sptimes.com.

[Last modified April 20, 2006, 12:38:13]