Senate OKs Bill Requiring Seat Belt Use and Air Bags

The Senate, united behind what had been among the most divisive and heavily lobbied issues of the session, approved legislation Thursday requiring motorists to use their seat belts and auto makers to install automatic crash protections, such as air bags, in all California cars.

The measure, approved by a 23-7 margin, was similar to one rejected only three months ago by the Senate. That bill, however, pertained only to seat belts and did not require installation of automatic restraints.

Final OK Likely

The legislation was returned to the Assembly for concurrence in Senate amendments, the last stop before it goes to Gov. George Deukmejian. Final approval by the Legislature is virtually assured since Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), the author, has made the measure a personal crusade.

The seat belt bill thus appears to be a on a fast track to Deukmejian after once being considered so controversial that few expected final action this year.

Basically, the legislation would require Californians to buckle up, starting Jan. 1, or face fines up to $50. It also would impose criminal penalties on automobile manufacturers who fail to equip cars sold in California with automatic crash protections by Sept. 1, 1989.

“This means every day approximately three lives in California will not be lost,” predicted Sen. John F. Foran (D-San Francisco), who carried the bill on the Senate floor. He cited statistics suggesting that such a law would boost seat belt use in California by 50% and prevent some of the most serious highway injuries and deaths.

Deukmejian has declined to take a position on the bill until it reaches his desk. In recent statements he indicated he would support some kind of a mandatory seat belt measure. But he strongly suggested that he did not want to involve himself in the controversy over air bags.

Deukmejian spokesman Bob Taylor reiterated that position, saying that “this bill does not entirely conform to what the governor originally requested. He has no position on it as it comes to him.”

Legislative sources and lobbyists representing most groups associated with the bill said they believe it would be hard for Deukmejian to veto it because of statistics projecting dramatic reductions in highway carnage and because influential groups which once opposed it, such as auto makers, have dropped their opposition.

That consensus became evident Thursday when the Senate, once badly divided over the issue, acted almost without debate and with none of the emotionalism that had marked earlier hearings.

The seat belt provisions would apply to all drivers and passengers but not to physically disabled persons who cannot wear belts or to mail carriers and newspaper distributors.

Violations could bring fines up to $20 for first offense and $50 for subsequent offenses. But the measure specifies that citations would be issued only when a motorist was stopped for another violation.

Strength Tests

It also would require that seat belts meet strength tests, something that federal law has neglected. That provision had drawn opposition from the Deukmejian Administration because of fears that it would require a new state department and employees. But the bill was changed to allow auto makers to simply certify that the belts are safe.

By far the most controversial provision is the one requiring auto makers to install automatic restraints--either air bags or automatic seat belts--in cars sold in California after Sept. 1, 1989.

Manufacturers who failed to so equip their cars would face a fine of up to $500 for each non-complying vehicle sold in California.

Several large insurance companies demanded that as a way of cutting down on claims settlements. But auto makers who opposed air bags as too costly favored another measure by Foran that would have required seat belts alone.

The Senate defeated the Foran bill in April because it appeared that it would have helped auto makers avoid nationwide air bag regulations. The Reagan Administration has agreed to drop a requirement for air bags on all new cars beginning in the 1990s if states with two-thirds of the nation’s population enact seat belt laws.

Auto Makers Drop Opposition

Auto makers, meanwhile, decided to drop their opposition, hoping that they can persuade the Legislature to eliminate the air bag provision before it takes effect at the end of the decade.

Brown, however, has predicted that the air bag provision would remain and that eventually auto makers would begin installing air bags in cars nationwide rather than produce a special car for California.

At least 10 states have adopted mandatory seat belt bills. But none require installation of air bags or other crash protection systems.