Rep. Jim Sullivan helped defeat a seat-belt bill last year after watching his grandson die despite being strapped in.
But he has changed his mind this year, and on Wednesday he joined a majority of the House Transportation Committee in approving House Bill 1125, which would make not wearing a seat belt a primary offense.
Before the vote, the Larkspur Republican quietly explained to colleagues that he had opposed the law last year in part because he was still mired in “a significant grieving process” over the death of his grandson, who had died while wearing a seat belt and while Sullivan was driving.
“He was killed,” Sullivan said of his grandson, Cass Gelroth, who was 18 at the time of the 2003 accident on a remote highway in Utah. “I wasn’t. I was extremely resentful (last year). He had a seat belt, and to be honest with you, I thought ‘What the hell good is a seat belt?”‘
Sullivan’s vote against the measure was key to its failure last year on the floor of the House of Representatives. But Sullivan now has come around to accept that most accident victims are helped by seat belts, he said.
“My grandson died while I was taking his pulse,” Sullivan said. “If somebody else’s grandson can be saved, I’ll support this bill.”
Current law makes failure to wear a seat belt a secondary offense, meaning officers cannot pull drivers over solely for not being belted in. The bill would change that.
Sullivan said he also supports the new version of the bill sponsored by Democratic Rep. Fran Coleman of Denver because it expressly prohibits using the seat-belt law as an excuse to pull over minority drivers. Racial profiling had been another major concern for Sullivan last year, he said.
Other Republicans on the Transportation and Energy Committee on Tuesday said they remained concerned about potential police abuses.
Coleman, who said her father died in a car accident in the 1960s, said her bill could instantly make Colorado roads safer. Other states have seen traffic injuries and fatalities plummet after putting similar laws on the books, she said.
“We stand to save a lot of lives, and also save a lot of money in long-term health care,” she said.
Republican Rep. Jim Welker of Loveland said he supported the idea of encouraging more seat-belt use, but that he could not support creating a “police state.”
Staff writer Jim Hughes can be reached at 303-820-1244 or jhughes@denverpost.com.
