Objections to Florida’s new primary seat belt law answered
The Florida legislature fought tooth and nail for years against the primary seatbelt law co-sponsored by Irv Slosberg. Slosberg began is crusade and in fact ran for office for the main purpose of seeing this bill pass. He had a stake in it. His daughter Dori was killed in a tragic car accident in 1994. Convinced that she would have been saved through the use of seat belts, he began his crusade and formed the Dori Slosberg Foundation.
It was only when the Feds dangled money in an amount that the Florida legislature simply could not resist if it passed the Dori Slobber & Katie Marcher Safety Belt Bill. The objections until the game changing federal grant caused the bills passage was extensive. In this interview with the TC Palm:
There were a few objections to the passing of this law, and they include racial profiling. However, the bill received the endorsement of the Black Caucus. A valiant supporter of this bill was the Me harry Medical Center, the largest black medical college in the United States. The Libertarian Party objected to being stopped for a seat belt ticket. My argument for this is as a government, there is nothing more important than the public’s safety. The Libertarians argue for freedom of choice, but why should the Florida taxpayer have to pay for the ignorance of the 20 percent who choose not to buckle up? More…
Some of the issues are understandable, in particular the racial profiling objections; we’ve seen that issue come to roost in the White House in recent days after all. This new law however does not create racial profiling as an issue, it just in the eyes of some, perhaps rightfully so, enable it. We do not combat this problem by refusing to save lives though. If a police department is engaged in such behavior, the only way to cure it is to do so through systems and education programs within that department.
We applaud Rep. Slosberg’s persistence in this matter, it’s always sad when the injury or death of someone dear calls a person to action, it’s awesome to know that such unfortunate circumstances yield the intended results.
