We now know the cost of standing on principle: $12 million.
The federal government dangled an extra $12 million in highway funding in front of cash-strapped Colorado lawmakers late last month. To claim it, legislators needed to change state law to allow police to pull over drivers for not wearing their seat belts.
The federal government thinks of it as an incentive. To us, it sounded more like blackmail.
Lawmakers, who barely pieced together this year’s budget, had 12 million reasons to change the law. But a House committee on Monday wisely rejected the change, even after the Senate approved it.
We’ve never been fans of the federal government dictating Colorado public policy, so we were pleased to see the House reject the idea — and the much-needed cash.
In Colorado, the law already requires drivers and passengers to wear safety belts, but police can ticket offenders only if they are stopped for other reasons, such as speeding or reckless driving. Making seat-belt use a primary offense — meaning you can get pulled over if police suspect you’re not wearing your belt — is particularly dangerous because of those few bad apples among police who see minor infractions as opportunities to pull over and intimidate certain drivers, including minorities and others.
Wearing a seat belt is a safety issue, but making it a primary offense quickly becomes a civil liberties issue.
The bill likely will resurface again next year, along with the federal attempt at blackmail. If the past is any judge, it will become harder for Colorado to resist in the future, as the incentive will grow and penalties for not acting will increase. But for now, we’re pleased our lawmakers stood strong.
Meanwhile, lawmakers changed another primary-offense bill, but, we think, went a tad too far.
We supported House Bill 1094, which would have required drivers to use hands-free cellphone devices, but had hoped they would make it a secondary offense instead of a primary offense. Instead, as of Tuesday, they simply stripped out the provision requiring adults to use hands-free devices. As written, it now only bans text-messaging for all age groups, which we think is smart, and prohibits anyone younger than 18 from using a cellphone while driving.
It’s true that there is a host of distractions that routinely find their way into moving cars, but those distractions are mostly fleeting. Talking on a cellphone that you have to hold is dangerous, and we hope lawmakers come back next with something that bans handheld cellphones in cars.
As long as it’s a secondary offense.
