Friday, January 28, 2000
Police hoping for stricter seat-belt law
Two fatalities underscore need for prevention
BY TOM O'NEILL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The sting of two fatal car crashes in Greater Cincinnati on Wednesday, both involving people not wearing seat belts, has police hoping their words will echo all the way to Columbus.
That's where state legislators are considering a bill that would allow Ohio's police to stop motorists for seat-belt violations without pegging the stop to another infraction, such as speeding.
If drivers won't buckle up, local police say, make them.
“I've had to inform about 10 families about fatals, and let me tell you, it's never easy,” Madeira police Chief Gerald Beckman said Thursday, one day after an 18-year-old passenger was killed in Madeira. “And most could have been prevented.”
Jessica Longbottom, 18, of Madison Place, was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from a Pontiac Firebird when it struck a tree and overturned into an embankment off Camargo Road. That was at 12:30 p.m.
Ten hours earlier, at 2:20 a.m., 33-year-old Charlie Pridemore of Batavia was killed in a head-on crash on Ohio 125 near Amelia, Clermont County. Mr. Pridemore also was not wearing a seat belt.
“There's a possibility wearing a seat belt would have saved his life, absolutely,” said Sgt. John Tibbs of the Ohio State Highway Patrol in Batavia, which handled the crash.
In Clermont County last year, 82 percent of the 26 people killed in crashes were not wearing seat belts.
“Shoot, you could say 50 to 60 percent would still be alive, but you can never say for sure,” Sgt. Tibbs said.
Statewide, 1,136 people were killed on Ohio roads last year. Only 33 percent of those killed were buckled up, according to the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
If Ohio's seat-belt use increase mirrors the states that have primary enforcement, that would mean 114 lives would be saved each year, according to the safety department.
Madeira Chief Beckman said a seat belt might not have saved Ms. Longbottom's life, because the car struck the tree on the passenger side.
Although it is virtually impossible to say with certainty how many fatalities could have been avoided, National Safety Council Communications Director Bob Harrigan said Thursday: “Your average state seat-belt law would increase use by 15 percent, but the real key is active enforcement.”
That's been crucial to California's 1991 law allowing for seat belt violation-only stops, Mr. Harrigan said from the agency's Chicago-area office. Seat-belt use in California is now 90 percent, by far the best in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation statistics.
“Some lawmakers will say
it's not the business of government to tell us what to do,” Mr. Harrigan continued. “That (drivers) can run those risks for themselves, but the fact is they don't run the risks just for themselves. They just don't pay the costs — we all do.”
Mr. Harrigan, who grew up in Ohio, said that Ohio's high fatality rate and low seat-belt use rate aren't coincidental and that they are the result of several factors. It is largely a rural state, where seat-belt use is traditionally lower than average. And its big cities — Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati — have high traffic congestion.
“If somebody knew the key, we'd devise a plan around it,” he said.
On Tuesday, the state House Transportation and Public Safety committee voted, 8-2, in favor of Bill 290, which would move seat-belt enforcement from secondary to primary.
“By wearing safety belts, drivers and their passengers can reduce their chances of death in a car crash by 50 percent and the chance of serious injury by 40 percent,” said Lt. Governor Maureen O'Connor, director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
The bill passed with only two amendments: that insurance companies agree not to raise a driver's insurance rate based on tickets issued for seat-belt violations; and that there be a six-month “grace period” in which warnings, but not citations, would be issued.
The bill will now go to the floor of the Ohio House of Representatives. If approved, it will go to the Ohio Senate.
Meanwhile, Chief Beckman's words slowed. He talked more as a father than police officer.
“I pester my kids to the point, I'm sure, where it's annoying,” he said of seat-belt use. “It's the biggest fear I have.”
SEAT-BELT USE RATES
• Ohio: 60.6 percent
• Kentucky: 54.3 percent
• Indiana: 61.8 percent
• U.S.: 70 percent
Source: U.S. Department of Transportation
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