Minnesota seat belt legacy comes full circle with new law

Saint Paul, MN -- If you don't already have enough reasons to buckle up you'll gain one more motivating factor Tuesday.

Minnesota's new primary seat belt law clicks in for keeps, empowering law enforcement officers to pull over and ticket motorists for no other reason than failure to wear a restraint while driving. They can tack on extra pain for those drivers with unbuckled passengers under the age of 15.

Unrestrained passengers age 15 and older are subject to being ticketed directly. The fee will remain $25, but the costs could rise to $100 with surcharges and other feeds.

"Currently we average around 200 unbelted fatalities a year and over 400 critical injuries," the Department of Public Safety's Cheri Marti told KARE, "So this bill isn't about issuing citations, it is about saving lives and critical injuries that have devastating impacts on families and loved ones."

In fact June 9th is not a random date for rolling out the new law. It's the 10th anniversary of Meghan Cooper-Murphey's death as an unbelted passenger on the final day of classes at Kenyon-Wanamingo High School.

Meghan's mother, Kathy Cooper of Northfield, turned the family's tragedy into a personal campaign for a primary seat belt law. Her lobbying efforts at the State Capitol are credited, in part, with overcoming resistance from lawmakers.

"The first couple of years I was one of those Libertarian, you know, you-can't-tell-us-to-wear-a-seat-belt kind of persons," Murphy explained, "After being educated and talking to a lot of people who have felt the impact like Kathy Cooper and others it just became apparent that it was the right thing to do."

Murphy, as chairman of the transportation committee, led the charge in the Senate. One argument he often employed was the basic cost to taxpayers and insurance rate payers.

"Every time somebody dies on Minnesota roads it costs us as a society about one million dollars," Murphy argued, "And these are increased costs in insurance costs which we all get to pay, increased costs in ambulance runs, firefighters, police, accident reconstruction. It goes on and on and on."

The primary offense seat belt bill passed several times in the Senate but had trouble taking hold in the House. Objections ranged from personal freedom concerns, to worries such a law would lead to a rise in racial profiling in traffic stops.

Murphy thanked House members Kim Norton of Rochester and Tony Cornish of Good Thunder for working out a compromise that would garner enough votes to get it through that chamber in 2009.

In a way Minnesota as a state is coming full circle on this issue of safety belts. More than a half century ago University of Minnesota mechanical engineering professor James "Crash" Ryan made his mark in auto safety history by perfecting his retractable harness.

Ryan found visually compelling ways to promote the value of seat belts, including a live demonstration on the Today Show in April of 1957. He suspended a heavy sedan 50 feet in the air, using a crane. On cue host Dave Garroway pushed a button releasing the car, which crashed to the ground in a dramatic display of the impact of a crash at 40 miles per hour.

Ever since the Ryan's belts became available commercially the American public has been undergone a steady barrage of public service announcements on the virtues of buckling for safety. The ads ranged from thought provoking to comical, including the talking crash test dummies "Vince" and "Larry."

Cheri Marti, as the head of the Office of Traffic Safety, will continue media campaigns aimed at getting people to fasten their seat belts. But she's confidence the element of a tougher law will eventually enable the state to move the seat belt compliance rate from the current level of 87 percent to Michigan's gold standard of 97 percent.

"Everybody knows why they should wear their seat belt," Marti said, "But studies have shown young drivers will actually wear their seat belts if they think they might be pulled over and given a ticket."

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