Senate OKs bill allowing stops for seat belt violation

CARSON CITY -- Police would be permitted to pull over vehicles anytime they believe a driver is not wearing a seat belt under a bill approved 12-9 Tuesday in the Senate.

Nevada currently has a secondary seat belt law. Police cannot stop a vehicle and cite drivers for a seat belt violation unless they first charge them with another driving offense.

Senate Bill 116 would make Nevada a primary seat belt law state, meaning police could pull over drivers just for not wearing seat belts.

Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, said in an interview that he was persuaded to sponsor and support Senate Bill 116 after visiting the trauma center at University Medical Center.

Some of the patients were people who were not wearing seat belts and were ejected from vehicles during accidents.

Schneider said some of these patients are permanently disabled and the state must pay their medical and living expenses for the rest of their lives.

"You can have freedom of choice (on whether to wear a seat belt), but it shouldn't include having the taxpayers to pay for you for 40 years or until you die," said Schneider, chairman of the Senate Energy, Infrastructure and Transportation Committee.

But Assembly Transportation Chairman Kelvin Atkinson, D-North Las Vegas, is not convinced the bill will lead to more people wearing seat belts and a reduction in serious traffic accidents. He noted that 92 percent of Nevadans already wear seat belts, according to a survey.

With Senate approval, Senate Bill 116 will be forwarded to Atkinson's committee for hearings. Two years ago, a similar primary seat belt bill died in the committee.

Most people don't know the difference between a primary and a secondary seat belt law and simply think that under state law they must wear seat belts, Atkinson said.

"DUIs and speeding are the two top causes for traffic fatalities," he said in an interview. "My point is, they are against the law and people still are breaking the law. If you can prove to me that a primary seat belt law will cause the 8 percent who don't wear seat belts to wear them, then I will vote for it."

Atkinson emphasized that he wants people to wear seat belts but doesn't think a primary seat belt law will change their behavior.

Nonetheless, he said, he will give the bill a fair hearing. He would not predict whether it will pass the committee.

Schneider noted in the interview that his former legislative intern, University of Nevada, Reno, student Adam Thomas, was killed during the 2007 session in an accident in which he was ejected from a vehicle while not wearing a seat belt. A friend of his who was belted in suffered minor injuries in the accident.

During a hearing on the bill last week, Sen. Joyce Woodhouse, D-Henderson, said she was "blessed to be serving on the Legislature" after a car accident last year that "was the most horrendous, horrifying and frightening event in my entire life."

Woodhouse said a police officer told her in the ambulance that she would have "sailed through the windshield" and died if she had not been wearing a seat belt.

But another witness, Lynn Chapman of the conservative Nevada Families Eagle Forum, said her brother died in an accident while wearing a seat belt.

"It made no difference," she said. "He still died."

Support for the bill in the Senate hardly was along party lines. Both Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, and Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, voted against the bill.

All three black lawmakers in the Senate -- Horsford, Bernice Mathews, D-Reno, and Maurice Washington, R-Sparks -- voted against it.

But none of them, nor any senator, made any comments before the vote.

In the interview, Schneider said he thought black lawmakers opposed the bill because of racial profiling, or believing that police might pull over blacks more than other drivers.

Atkinson, who is black, said he considered Schneider's comments racist. He said there is profiling against middle-age and younger blacks, and against Hispanics and some whites.

"Ninety-nine percent of the cops are good cops," he said. "But if this bill allows one bad cop to give one person a hard time, then I don't want to support it."

But Atkinson emphasized that his argument against a primary seat belt law is that it will not induce more people to wear seat belts.

Contact Review-Journal reporter Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.