New Law Has Area Drivers Buckling Up : Transportation: The rate of citations has multiplied countywide. Police say the tougher stance is saving lives.

Two months into a new era--where California drivers and their passengers can be pulled over on sight for seat belt violations--law enforcement officials say Ventura County motorists are complying with the new law.

But not without some prodding.

Virtually every jurisdiction in the county reported issuing two to four times as many citations for failing to buckle up over the same period last year, dumping thousands of dollars of unanticipated revenue into government coffers.

“Overall, we’re getting good compliance, but we’re getting very good compliance from those people who have received citations,” said Sheriff’s Sgt. Keith Lazz of the Camarillo substation. “It went from being a secondary violation to a primary violation, and that has a big impact.”

Other law enforcement officials say the new law is saving lives.

“We’re seeing more cars driven more miles with fewer injuries and fewer fatalities” since the new law went into effect, said Lt. Mike Brown, who heads up traffic at the sheriff’s substation in Thousand Oaks.

His deputies issued 132 seat belt law violations in January and February--well above the 56 issued through February of last year, Brown said.

“They are using the law as the Legislature intended and that helps all of us,” Brown said of his deputies. “They know when they see a bad accident that the driver would have been dead for sure if they hadn’t been wearing a seat belt.”

Don Mulville, senior traffic officer for the Oxnard police, said precise numbers are not available, but safety belt law violations in Oxnard have risen from about 50 a month to between 100 and 200 monthly since the first of the year.

“Some people don’t like the intrusion,” he said. “But look at the helmet people. Their feeling is it’s a right to drive like that when in fact it’s a privilege. If you don’t obey the law, you lose the privilege.”

In Mulville’s estimation, four out of five Oxnard drivers are using seat belts despite the high number of tickets being issued.

“I’m sure citations have gone up because before, you couldn’t write that up as a primary offense,” he said. “But in my own contacts with the people, they appear to be complying.”

Simi Valley Traffic Sgt. Jeff Malgren said his department wrote up 139 seat belt violations through February of this year, compared with just 42 during the same months in 1992.

“It’s another use of the vehicle code as a probable-cause stop,” he said. “In our unit here, it’s strictly traffic enforcement, but a lot of times it leads to other things.

“Where you need some type of violation to pull someone over, this is an ideal violation,” Malgren said.

But not every police officer and sheriff’s deputy is patrolling the streets searching for unbuckled drivers.

“It’s done on an as-you-have-time basis,” said Cmdr. Mark Hanson of the Santa Paula Police Department, which has issued just 11 such tickets this year.

“There’s some things we do that are proactive and some things we do that are reactive,” he said. “When you have a series of high-priority calls, then obviously there’s not a lot of time for the proactive or traffic enforcement.”

No comparison figures from previous years are available from Santa Paula police, Hanson said.

Other law enforcement officials predict that the high volume of citations will bottom out before the year is over.

Traffic Sgt. Mike Lewis of the Camarillo sheriff’s substation said deputies this year have already written one-third the number of seat belt tickets they did in the whole of 1992.

“The interesting thing about it is that in January, we wrote 155, and in February, it dropped off to 80,” he said. “If what we’re seeing is a trend, we probably will write less seat belt violations in 1993 based on that trend.”

Lewis said Camarillo deputies had served up 574 safety belt citations in 1991, but that the number jumped to 676 last year. A standing count of passing drivers in Camarillo in November suggested an 80% compliance rate--just above the state average of 74% that the California Highway Patrol reports, Lewis said.

“I know it’s not an indication that the officers aren’t enforcing the law, so my indication is that people are complying with it.”

Violators of the state safety belt law pay about $22 for the first violation and up to $55 on subsequent convictions.

Ventura County Assistant Court Executive Vince Ordonez said $17 of the fine immediately goes into various county trust funds set aside for road improvement, alcohol and drug counseling, and other programs.

“The remaining $5 is then split between the city, county and state,” he said.

Surprisingly, the California Highway Patrol reports fewer safety belt citations statewide in January than in the same month last year. CHP officers issued 56,780 such violations in January, 1992, and 49,907 a year later, CHP spokesman Steve Kohler said.

“The assumption is other law enforcement agencies are issuing more citations under the new law,” he said. “Because of the tremendous publicity before the law went into effect and the more immediate possibility of being stopped and cited, more people are buckling up.”

Kohler said he expects fewer seat belt violations this year than the 552,580 written up in 1992.

No local numbers from the Ventura CHP office were available, Officer Staci Morse said.

Ventura Police Traffic Sgt. George Morris said at least half of the last 10 traffic fatalities would have been prevented with seat belts.

“Anyone who ever works traffic accidents, unless they’re leaving their eyes closed, knows the difference between serious or minor injuries is a seat belt,” said Morris, who tallied the January, 1992, seat belt violations in Ventura at 34.

Ventura police wrote up 167 such tickets this January, he said.

“I hope they stay high because if people aren’t complying, we need to be out there enforcing it,” he said.