Seat belt proposal raises racial concerns

April 6, 1998
Web posted at: 2:32 p.m. EDT (1832 GMT)

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- The Clinton administration is proposing that states should allow their local police to stop drivers to see whether they are buckled up. But that proposal, while intended to save lives, has raised concern of racial bias in some ethnic communities.

For Lt. Anthony Alba of the Los Angeles police, the proposal is clearly a good thing.

"We feel that anything that would help deter terrible traffic accidents and injury to people in vehicles is something that we could support," he told CNN.

But the proposal has some people worried, and there has been strong resistance in many African-American communities where people have long felt that police are biased against them.

"If they are going to start just arbitrarily checking people for seat belts, (then) that is gong to create a whole lot of animosity," one African-American in Los Angeles told CNN.

Surveys have found that many African-American communities have lower seat belt use than other areas, and, as a result, suffer from a higher rate of traffic accident deaths and injury.

California Democrat and House member Juanita Millender-McDonald said the basic idea underlying the seat belt proposal was safety.

"We want to save lives," she said. "The reference to the disproportionate percentage of young African-American males being pulled over by law enforcement -- I think we need to look at (that) as well."

Oklahoma Congressman J.C. Watts, also an African-American, said in a statement: "I do not want to do or say anything that could be interpreted as discouraging anyone -- red, yellow, brown, black or white -- from wearing seat belts".

But he also said he was in favor of a study of possible harassment through routine vehicle checks.

The District of Columbia already enacted the seat belt law in October and reports say that more people have been buckling up.

About 15 states also are considering ways to tighten their seat belt laws.

Correspondent Jim Hill contributed to this report.

Related stories:

• NTSB to urge tighter rules on air bags, safety belts - June 9, 1997
• Americans driving more safely - May 24, 1996

Related sites:

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

• National Transportation Safety Board
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Seat Belt Basics - Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.

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