Highway to Self-Destruction

Before it adjourns this week the Legislature is expected to enact a mandatory seat-belt law that should, once it takes effect Jan. 1, lead to a significant decline in traffic deaths and injuries. Already, though, the durability of this welcome measure is in doubt. What the Legislature is about to give it threatens very shortly to snatch away, by providing that the seat-belt law will become void unless the federal government in the next few years requires all new cars to be equipped with passive-restraint devices.

The government is, in fact, moving in just the opposite direction, preparing to forget about passive restraints if states representing two-thirds of the population adopt seat-belt laws. With that in mind the Legislature has further provided that its belt law will become void if Californians are counted as part of that two-thirds requirement. Since the Transportation Department almost certainly intends to do just that, California’s seat-belt law could be rescinded quickly indeed.

It’s all very complicated, and it’s also absurd. If the Legislature was serious about improving public safety it would simply say that motorists have to wear seat belts or face a fine. Other states have done that, and a lot of lives have been saved as a result. But Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), reflecting the views of the big insurance companies, insists that any law must require passive-restraint devices as well. These systems, either air bags or automatically locking shoulder belts, supplement but don’t replace existing seat belts, adding marginal additional protection at considerable cost.

Obviously an enforced mandatory seat-belt law would be the easiest and most cost-effective step that could be taken toward greater road safety.But that’s not what Californians are about to get. Instead they will be handed a sort of mock law that within a short time gives every promise of self-destructing. That is, as we say, absurd. It’s also grossly irresponsible.