Dusty Shelf

That's where I think this Palm Beach Post editorial came from.

Irv Slosberg may be out of the Legislature, but one of his pet causes lives on.

The former state senator tried for years to allow police to ticket drivers just for not wearing a seat belt. Currently, failure to belt up is a secondary offense, meaning that police can write a ticket only if they stop a driver for another violation.

House Bill 27, sponsored by Rep. Rich Glorioso, R-Tampa, already has cleared a committee. The bill, which has a Senate companion, is named for Mr. Slosberg's late daughter, Dori, who died in a car crash in 1996, and Katie Marchetti, a 16-year-old from the Tampa area who last year was thrown from a car and killed. Neither girl was wearing a seat belt.

In previous years, some minority legislators opposed such legislation, fearing racial profiling, but now there is less resistance. Some may see it as excessive government, but one study calculated that it could save about 1,200 lives in Florida.

Many other people could be spared extensive, crippling and costly injuries that drive up insurance costs. All that would be worth a new law.

From experience, I've learned to be skeptical about claims the Post has made in editorials. The 1,200 figure was what was bothering me.

So I combed the post archives for the original news article this was based on. I came up with nada. The same went with a yahoo search.

I finally went to google and found this.

posted by Mark Skoneki on Jan 24, 2007 3:26:54 PM

DAVID ROYSE

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TALLAHASSEE — Police could pull over any Florida driver spotted not wearing a seat belt under a bill unanimously approved today by a state House committee.

Currently, police can only ticket adult drivers for not wearing seat belts if they are pulled over for something else.

Police and safety groups have tried for years to change that, saying if police could pull over drivers who aren't buckled up it would save hundreds of lives. But they've been stymied again and again by skeptics with concerns about racial profiling and a distaste for Big Brother — giving the state yet another reason to stop people.

The push for what's known as "primary seat belt enforcement" had been led by former Rep. Irv Slosberg, whose daughter Dori was killed in a crash while not wearing a seat belt. The best he was able to get was a compromise bill passed last year that allows police to pull over young drivers — those police think are under 18 — who aren't buckled up.

Slosberg, a Democrat, left the Legislature last year, but the effort for full primary enforcement has been taken up by Rep. Rich Glorioso, R-Plant City.

The bill (HB 27), now named the Dori Slosberg and Katie Marchetti Safety Belt Law, was approved unanimously Wednesday by the House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee with little debate.

Marchetti, a 16-year-old who lived in Glorioso's Tampa-area district, died in a crash last year when she was thrown from a car in which she was a passenger.

"If she'd been strapped in, she'd be fine today," Glorioso said.

Many black caucus members once opposed the bill, but some have gradually changed their minds, including one who noted that more black children have been killed by car crashes than racial profiling.

The Florida Highway Patrol and several other police groups support the bill, as well as the motorists' group AAA, which says it is their top priority.

Note the article is over a month old. Also the Post can't tell the difference between Plant City and Tampa.

Also note the article says hundreds of lives, not 1,200. The Post doesn't just recycle the news, but can't get simple facts straight.

As to the seat belt law, you can't always make people use common sense. We have seat belt laws now, and people ignore them. I don't think a change in the law will any more than a minimum impact. It will however give the nearby Atlantis police another reason to pull over drivers who aren't even in the city limits. Such is justice in Florida.

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