A plan to let police pull over unbuckled drivers and charge them higher fees hit a dead end in committee Tuesday after lawmakers gutted the bill, likely forfeiting $12 million in federal transportation dollars in the process.
Lawmakers on the Senate Transportation Committee said they struggled to balance their constituents’ personal freedoms with public-safety concerns.
Police officers can already ticket drivers who don’t wear their seat belts but only if the officer has another reason to stop the car.
Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, said the mantra from her rural constituents is “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
“They’re probably the ones who choose not to wear seat belts, and they don’t want me as their state senator telling them to do that,” Spence said. “I don’t try to impose rules and regulations on them that they don’t want.”
Fines would have jumped $10, to $75, for violations under Senate Bill 110, sponsored by Sen. Suzanne Williams, D-Aurora. Similar, unsuccessful proposals have come before the legislature nine times.
The bill would have raised $300,000 for state transportation and attracted a potential $12 million in federal funds.
According to Automobile Association of America statistics, 30 other states make driving without a seat belt a primary offense, meaning officers don’t need another reason to stop a driver.
The State Patrol estimates that nearly one in five Colorado drivers travels unbuckled.
Felicia Euell, a lawyer and pastor from Thornton, survived a 60-foot plummet down an embankment in 2004 despite a neck broken in two places.
Her brother wasn’t so lucky when he crashed his car in 1994 and died at the age of 25 after flying through the windshield for lack of a seat belt.
She pointed out that increased health care, insurance and property- damage costs plague everyone when people choose not to buckle up.
A vote on the remainder of the bill — provisions that tweak the type of safety restraints 4- to 6-year-old children must wear — was postponed until a later date.
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com
