Chances Slim for Seat Belt Law This Year, Brown Says

Rejecting appeals to revive his mandatory seat belt legislation, which only two weeks ago seemed destined to become law, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown declared on Monday that the chances “are not great” for enactment of a such a measure this year.

The Speaker’s statements, which appeared to signal the final chapter to one of the session’s most heavily lobbied measures, were made after a conference committee considering Brown’s bill was unable to resolve a dispute centering on federal air bag regulations.

Brown (D-San Francisco) appointed a new committee of Assembly conferees to try to reach a compromise before the Legislature adjourns Friday. He could give no assurances, however, that the out come would be different.

Senate sources, meanwhile, indicated that the Senate is unlikely to support any changes to the seat belt measure at this time and that Monday’s action, in effect, shelved the bill for the year.

“It’s in the hands of the gods,” Brown told reporters after the hearing.

Brown’s bill, which would require motorists to use their seat belts and auto makers to install air bags or other automatic crash protections in cars sold in California starting in 1989, was on the verge of final legislative approval last month, when Brown suddenly put the brakes on the measure.

He said he acted out of fear that that U.S. Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole would use the bill’s passage as an excuse to abandon regulations calling for passive restraints, such as air bags, in all U.S. autos by 1989. Under a controversial Department of Transportation ruling, the federal air bag requirements would be set aside if states representing two-thirds of the nation’s population enact qualifying seat belt laws.

Monday’s outcome was no surprise to lobbyists working on the issue or to legislative insiders who believe that Brown called the conference committee as a forum for blaming the auto industry and the federal government for killing a bill that he ultimately controlled.

Objection Raised

Two major insurance companies, which sponsored Brown’s bill, have objected all along to anything that would make it easier for the federal government to back down on its nationwide air bag rules.

Brown decried what he described as “auto manufacturers’ greed” and “tyranny” in nearly two decades of lobbying to prevent imposition of federal air bag requirements.

Lee Ridgeway, General Motors’ Sacramento lobbyist, said the action convinces him that Brown “doesn’t want a seat belt bill.”

“He would rather sacrifice 1,000 lives because he can’t have air bags,” Ridgeway said.

Brown offered several compromises, but none was acceptable to Senate negotiators.

The Senate conferees offered to support Brown’s original bill as approved by both houses. He flatly turned them down, however, saying he would not allow his bill out of the conference committee unless there was a guarantee that it could not be used by Dole to rescind federal air bag rules.

Dole has consistently refused to give those assurances to Brown or to representatives of any of the 14 states that have enacted seat belt laws to date.

‘Waiting Patiently’

“I believe that Mrs. Dole has been contacted by the auto manufacturers, or at least my spies in Washington like (consumer advocate) Ralph Nader . . . have convinced me that Mrs. Dole is waiting patiently to grab California as her next state to get out of mandatory passive restraints,” Brown said.

One proposal advanced by Brown would allow the bill to take effect only after Dole promises not to count California among states with qualifying seat belt laws. Another would rescind the California seat belt law in the event that any part of the bill is successfully challenged in court.

Sen. John Foran (D-San Francisco), the Senate’s leading advocate of seat belt legislation and a conference committee member, said that either way, motorists probably will be left with no seat belt law.

“I don’t care what (Dole) does,” Foran snapped. “I just want a seat belt bill. What we are doing, in effect, is not having a bill go into effect Jan. 1.”

Increase Compliance

State officials estimate that only about 15% to 20% of California motorists use their seat belts. The measure’s supporters believe that a seat belt law would increase compliance to about 70%, saving an estimated 1,000 lives annually.

New York has experienced a 30% drop in highway fatalities since Jan. 1, when it became the first state to enact a mandatory seat belt law.