Mother’s hopes to save others from grief faded along with seat belt law

The infuriating part of the loss of a stronger seat belt law wasn’t missing out on $5.5 million in federal money for Nevada. (We’re so rolling in dough that we can kiss off millions.)

The part that made me angry is that Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson decided to use his power as chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee to deep-six the bill by refusing to bring it to a vote.

It was his right, but was it right?

Right now, you are supposed to wear a seat belt, but police can’t stop you for not wearing one. You can only be cited if you’re pulled over for another offense.

Senate Bill 42 was sponsored by state Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, a paramedic for 15 years who knows firsthand the results of drivers not wearing seat belts. His bill would have permitted police to pull you over for not wearing a seat belt. A citation wouldn’t add points or raise your insurance; but, if there were evidence of a crime, police could investigate that. (Civil libertarians feared racial profiling might occur under this bill.)

The bill squeaked by the state Senate 11-10. Opponents, including the Review-Journal editorial board, dissed it as a nanny bill that infringed on people’s freedom. “Laws should not protect careless people from themselves,” testified Lynn Chapman of the Nevada Eagle Forum.

Atkinson, D-North Las Vegas, said Friday he decided not to bring the bill up for a vote because “quite a few members of the committee were uncomfortable with the pressure they were receiving. The committee members didn’t want to vote on it.”

Weenies.

Atkinson’s other reasons: He doesn’t personally believe changing the law would make more people buckle up. He also believes a study that said 91 percent of Nevada drivers already wear their seat belts.

The push for stronger seat belt laws comes strongest from parents who have lost sons and daughters who might have survived if they’d worn their seat belts. Nothing like an injured or dead family member to make believers out of don’t-curb-my-freedom types.

One Las Vegas mother is already trying to help organize the fight for the 2009 Legislature. Kelly Thomas-Boyers testified on behalf of the bill after her 21-year-old son, Adam Thomas, died in an accident in Reno. The other boy in the car was wearing his seat belt and was barely hurt. But Adam, a 21-year-old University of Nevada, Reno senior who hoped to be a journalist, wasn’t wearing his. He was in a coma for eight days before he died March 18.

“He had a questioning, investigative mind; that was his persona,” Kelly said. “I believe if the seat belt law had been a primary law, he would have worn his seat belt.”

SB42 became a cause for Kelly, a constructive way to grieve. She testified for it publicly. She lobbied for it aggressively. Since her son was a legislative intern, lawmakers knew him.

When Atkinson refused to bring the bill to a vote in the Transportation Committee, she said, “I was more than outraged, I’m flabbergasted he made the decision for all of us.”

Angry, heartsick, she asked herself what she should do next. “If I can save any parent from this, I will do anything,” she said, touching the diamond cross at her throat and crying.

Kelly is a health care strategist, already working with others to try to prove to lawmakers in the 2009 session that failure to wear seat belts is costly not just in lives, but in health care expenses. (Michael Geezer of AAA testified that hospital costs for unbelted individuals are 50 percent higher than for those wearing seat belts.)

A Democrat who lives in Assembly District 6, Kelly is even considering running for the Assembly herself to carry the bill forward. “Things have become very crystallized about what’s important to me,” she said. Democrat Harvey Munford now is the assemblyman.

In the state Senate hearing on the bill, Frank Adams, executive director of Nevada Sheriffs’ and Chiefs’ Association, said in 2006 in Nevada 145 of the 432 traffic fatalities were not wearing their seat belts. He estimated 72 lives could have been saved that year.

If Adams testifies for the bill again in 2009, he can cite the latest statistics.

The late Adam Thomas will be one of those numbers.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0275.