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State gets in gear on safer driving

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 20, 2009

Many drivers don't have the sense or maturity to act responsibly behind the wheel. That's why the state has the duty to adopt new traffic laws to clamp down on poor safety habits and dangerous driving.

This summer we've seen two good examples of the Legislature and Gov. Charlie Crist doing that.

First came Crist's signing of a new seat belt law that allows law enforcement officers to stop a vehicle if drivers or front-seat passengers 18 and older aren't buckled in. Previously, officers could only stop an adult driver for a seat-belt violation if another infraction was committed first.

This change from a "secondary" to a "primary" law has some drivers seeing red. They argue they should have the right to decide whether to buckle up and that officers shouldn't be given such power for a minor infraction.

This is nonsense. State law has been clear for years: You are supposed to wear seat belts. This is not simply a matter of personal choice. Serious accidents generate steep public costs, from law enforcement response to medical treatment. If you don't wear a seat belt, you deserve a ticket.

Officers needn't allow someone to recklessly flout the law. Crist is right - the previous law "never made a whole lot of sense" because it couldn't be uniformly enforced. And more law-respecting drivers should use common sense by refusing to transport passengers who refuse to buckle.

Seat belts do save lives. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates Florida's upgraded law will save more than 100 lives and prevent more than 1,700 serious injuries each year - as well as save more than $400 million in related costs. The state also will receive $35 million in federal funds for enacting the law.

Those figures alone justify the law.

And consider: Last year in Florida, 1,795 people in vehicles were killed in crashes. Of those, 1,085 weren't wearing seat belts, state figures show. That's an eye-opening 60 percent.

State officials also are being proactive in seeking to send dangerous, crash-prone drivers back to school. Passed by the Legislature and signed by Crist this summer, this law, which won't take effect until January, will require any driver convicted of three crash-related moving violations in three years to take a hands-on driving class and pass a test, like a first-time driver.

If the offending drivers won't go or don't pass, they will lose their license. With such dangerous driving habits, they should consider themselves lucky the state would give them another chance.

Perhaps the threat of having to attend driving school, which will be inconvenient and embarrassing, will force the driver to be more cautious.

It doesn't appear fines and penalties alone are sufficient.

State motor vehicle officials say 3,277 drivers were at fault in 10,281 crashes in a three-year period ending in 2008. These drivers are a menace. They must be confronted.

The new law is certainly an improvement from current law. Offenders responsible for two crashes within a certain period can simply retreat to the Internet and take a four-hour class that doesn't t include any behind-the-wheel instruction. In the future, they'll get an earful from their instructors.

There's a certain irony to these new laws being enacted after Florida experienced a 7.4 percent drop-off in crash fatalities from 2007 to 2008. Still, nearly 3,000 people died last year. These new laws should help reduce that awful number and force motorists to drive with more regard for others.

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