Senate panel OKs bill to tighten seat-belt law

01/12/2007

Conrad DeFiebre
Star Tribune
Last update: January 11, 2007 – 8:21 PM


A long-sought crackdown on Minnesota's seat-belt scofflaws began moving through the Legislature again Thursday with swift approval by the Senate Transportation Committee.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Steve Murphy, DFL-Red Wing, would allow police to stop and ticket motorists simply for failing to buckle up. While Minnesota law has mandated seat-belt use since 1986, officers may enforce the law only if they first spot another violation.

Repeated legislative efforts to change the law to primary enforcement have fallen short over the years, despite proponents' predictions that it would get enough additional people to use belts to prevent scores of traffic deaths and hundreds of disabling injuries.

A new incentive for the enactment is a $15 million bonus offered by the federal government that could be applied to stepped-up speed enforcement and other traffic safety improvements.

Murphy's bill joins a growing list of legislation designed to enhance health and safety at some cost to personal freedom that might have a better chance of passage with this year's lopsided DFL majorities in both the House and the Senate.

Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty has promised to sign both the seat-belt bill and a proposed statewide public smoking ban should they reach his desk. Another initiative in that vein is a DFL proposal to ban motorists' use of hand-held cell phones.