By Sarah Green
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, March 29
A bill that would require more teenagers wear seatbelts or face fines was revived Thursday in a conference committee, after having been stalled in the House.
Members of the House and Senate transportation committees met to discuss settling disagreements over a host of transportation bills, including ones that would establish emergency medical services license plates and allow certain utility vehicles on highways.
But the priority for the Senate committee, said Chairman Les Donovan, R-Wichita, was Senate Bill 211, extending the state”s primary seat belt law from age 14 to age 17. It would allow drivers to be stopped and ticketed if officers saw children ages 17 or under without seat belts.
“We”ve worked years and years to get something done to alleviate the death toll of our kids and young drivers,” Donovan said. “We could save at least 40 or 50 kids each year, maybe more, and possibly get more adults to buckle up, too.”
The bill also would raise the fines for primary and the secondary violations of the law. The secondary law, applicable to those 18 and older, lets police ticket drivers and passengers not wearing seat belts only when stopped for another reason, such as speeding. The bill includes a plan for distributing collected fines to improve traffic records systems and emergency medical services.
Senate Bill 211 was placed on House General Orders but was not heard before Wednesday”s deadline. Advocates were critical of House Majority Leader Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, for not advancing it for debate.
Donovan reminded the conference committee that supporters of the bill had recommended a primary seat belt law for everyone in the state, not just teenagers, but also said he understood that there wasn”t support in either chamber to adopt a law that strict.
“There”s quite a bit of support in the Senate, but not enough,” he said.
Rep. Virgil Peck, R-Tyro, the vice-chairman of the House committee didn”t agree with SB 211. But after a brief meeting in the hallway that included the House committee members
Peck, Rep. Gary Hayzlett, R-Lakin, the committee chairman, and Rep. Margaret Long, D-Kansas City, the committee”s ranking minority leader
developed a compromise.
Instead of levying a $60 fine against all primary and secondary offenders, it now would be reserved for children and teenagers. The fine for secondary violators age 18 and older would be $30. Currently, the maximum fine for both primary and secondary offenses is $10.
“That”s a reasonable approach,” Donovan said. “The main thing is to get the $60 fine out there.”
The committee agreed to combine all of the remaining transportation bills into a substitute for either SB 8 or SB 9.
Hayzlett said after the meeting that the compromise transportation bill had a better chance of passing in the House, which must adopt the conference committee”s report on Monday or Tuesday.
“I think this has more buoyancy,” he said.
-Sarah Green is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. She can be reached at
sgreen@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 118.