OFF THE WIRE
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17187800
Safety coalition urges Colorado lawmakers to toughen seat-belt, helmet laws
By Jeffrey Leib
The Denver Post Posted: 01/25/2011
A national coalition promoting highway safety is again urging Colorado lawmakers to pass a primary enforcement seat-belt law as well as a measure that would mandate helmet use by all motorcycle riders.
Advocates for Highway & Auto Safety, which includes insurance, consumer, health, safety and law enforcement organizations, is encouraging states to adopt 15 basic traffic safety laws, including the seat-belt and helmet measures.
States, including Colorado, typically have some but not all of the 15 laws on the books.
Passage of a primary seat-belt law in Colorado would allow police to stop and cite a motorist for not wearing a seat belt. Seat-belt enforcement currently is a secondary offense, meaning an officer can only cite a driver for being unbelted if the motorist is stopped for another infraction.
Earlier efforts to pass primary seat-belt enforcement have failed.
The state's motorcycle-helmet rule requires drivers and passengers to wear helmets if they are 17 and younger.
Colorado is one of 12 states that has neither a primary seat-belt enforcement nor a requirement that all motorcycle riders wear helmets, according to the coalition. Others include Arizona, Idaho, Montana, North and South Dakota, Ohio, Utah and Wyoming.
The traffic safety coalition cited data showing that when states strengthen their seat-belt laws from secondary to primary enforcement, driver death rates decline by an estimated 7 percent.
Seat-belt use typically is 10 percent to 15 percent higher when primary seat-belt enforcement is the law compared with secondary-enforcement states, the group added.
The group said 4,462 motorcycle riders were killed and 90,000 injured in 2009 and it estimated that 732 of those killed, including 23 in Colorado, would have survived if all those riding motorcycles were required to wear helmets.
