WARNER HEADS BIPARTISAN PUSH FOR NATIONAL SEATBELT LEGISLATION.

Sen. John Warner (R-VA) took the lead Feb. 9 in pushing a bipartisan bill, S. 1993, to provide a highway safety improvement program that includes incentives to states to enact primary safety belt laws.

Flanked by representatives of a broad-based coalition of safety, medical, insurance, automotive and law enforcement groups, Warner told the crowd they could count on President Bush's support in getting the bill through Congress and signed into law.

The coalition, put together by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, represents more than 130 national, state and local groups, including automobile insurers, automobile manufacturers, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, state police organizations, the American Medical Association, the Emergency Nurses Association, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents, the American Insurance Association, Consumer Federation of America and Consumers Union.

Warner told the group he had decided to sponsor the bill because there is no question that states with seatbelt laws allowing law enforcement officers to issue a citation any time they observe an unbelted motorist cut down on the number of people killed in automobile crashes.

"This legislation is no fad or experiment, but a proven success," he said.

"Yet, today less than half the states have enacted such laws. To paraphrase President Reagan when he signed the 21 Minimum Drinking Age Act nearly 20 years ago, this problem is bigger than the individual states. It's a truly national problem, and it touches all our lives.

"With the problem so clear and the proven solution at hand, we have no misgivings about taking this common-sense step."

Under the bill, a state would be encouraged to enact a primary- enforcement seatbelt law, allowing police to stop unbelted motorists or to raise the rate of seatbelt use in the state to 90 percent.

In states with a secondary-enforcement seatbelt law, officers are allowed to cite someone for not wearing a belt only if they have broken other laws.

If the state failed to enact the law or raise seatbelt use to 90 percent, the state would face the loss of 2 percent of their federal highway funding and the loss could grow to 4 percent in subsequent years.

Advocates President Judith Lee Stone pointed out only 20 states and the District of Columbia have enacted primary seatbelt enforcement laws. The states are Alabama, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Washington.

The bill, called the National Highway Safety Act of 2003, is cosponsored by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH).

Clinton said it "will put the safe in SAFETEA," and DeWine called it "one of the surest ways we can decrease the astounding number of Americans who die on our roads every year."