Montana earns low rating for lax laws on motor vehicle safety

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http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20120111/NEWS01/201110309/Montana-earns-low-rating-lax-laws-motor-vehicle-safet
Montana earns low rating for lax laws on motor vehicle safety
   Written by RICHARD ECKE
Great Falls SAFETY REPORT
The group's report will be posted on the Tribune's website at www.gftrib.com after 7 this morning. For more information, visit www.saferoads.org

Group gives low rating to Montana on road safety laws Montana stands among the nation's eight worst states for the quality of its laws promoting safe driving, an advocacy group announced this morning.
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety ranked Montana among eight states with overall safety laws the group considers relatively lax compared with the rest of the country. The report was released this morning. The group's 2012 report will be discussed this morning in a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. "Families are paying with their lives and their wallets when commonsense and cost-effective laws languish in state legislatures year after year," group President Jacqueline S. Gillan said in the report's introduction. Five of the lowest-ranked states in the report are located in the independent West — Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and Arizona. Gillan maintained too many people are dying or being injured on the nation's highways and streets, prompting big costs for Medicaid and other programs that cover medical treatment for low-income residents. "When California's all-rider motorcycle helmet law went into effect in 1992, for example, there was a 40 percent drop in its Medicaid costs and total hospital charges for treatment of motorcycle riders," Gillan said in the introduction. She indicated that with governments and families strapped for cash in tough economic times, strengthening safety laws makes sense. In one example, the group noted Montana law does not allow a law officer to stop a vehicle because its occupants fail to wear seat belts unless another infraction takes place. The group said the lives of 74 Montanans were saved by seat belts in 2009, but said an additional 38 lives could have been saved if Montana had a primary seat-belt law that prompted 100 percent seat belt use. The report also estimated that the lives of seven motorcyclists could have been saved in Montana in 2009 with 100 percent use of motorcycle helmets. Montana does not require adults to wear helmets, although minors must. Only 20 states require all motorcyclists to wear helmets. Nationwide, some 732 lives could have been saved with 100 percent motorcycle helmet use, the report said. (Page 2 of 2) Montana also received a rating of dangerous for not having a primary booster seat law, which would allow law officers to stop vehicles for failing to place a young child in a booster seat. In addition, vehicle crashes in 2005 in Montana involving teens cost an estimated $27 million in medical charges and lost work. Montana should increase restrictions on teen drivers, according to the report. Montana's Legislature also was criticized in the report for failing to pass an all-driver law prohibiting text messaging while driving. The group cited federal figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that 3,092 people were killed in crashes affected by distracted driving, and 417,000 people were injured, in 2010. The Montana Legislature also has refused several times, most recently last year, to ban cellphone use by drivers statewide. Five of Montana's six largest cities, except for Great Falls, have passed ordinances restricting or banning hand-held cellphone use by drivers. Great Falls may consider a similar proposal this year. Although Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety ranked Montana low on the totem pole, state Sen. Joe Balyeat, R-Bozeman, Tuesday night defended the Montana Legislature's approach in an interview. "We already have a law that says you should be wearing a seat belt," said Balyeat, who grew up in Great Falls. "It's all a matter of where you draw the line. Montanans enjoy personal freedom and personal freedom comes with risk." Balyeat cited an old comparison between a canary that is relatively safe but living in a cage, or a robin that is free but faces danger in the outside world. "Which do we want as Montanans?" Balyeat asked.