Federal grant to help seat belt campaign

Wednesday, April 7, 2004 | 8:25 a.m.

SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- Last year an estimated 78.7 percent of Nevada motorists wore seat belts, so state safety officials don't think it is too much to ask to increase it to 80 percent.

The state Office of Traffic Safety has received a $600,000 federal grant to conduct a high visibility safety belt campaign next month.

Traffic Safety Director Chuck Abbott said Tuesday there were 368 fatalities and 65 percent of them were not wearing seat belts. He estimated that 50 percent of those could have been saved if they had buckled up.

The national average for wearing seat belts last year was 79 percent so Nevada was slightly below the average.

Abbott said $250,000 of the grant will be used for a media campaign, some money will go to law enforcement agencies for a stepped-up enforcement effort, a survey will be done after the media blitz to see how effective it was and a telephone survey will be conducted to determine public sentiment.

Nevada's law allows a motorist to be cited for not wearing a seat belt but only if he was pulled over for another violation. A bill to give law enforcement the authority to pull people over for apparent lack of seat belt use was introduced in the 2003 Legislature but it died in the Senate Finance Committee. Other states do have laws like that.

The grant is coming from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.