Rep. John Lovick Receives National Honor For Efforts to Promote Seat Belt Law

SEATTLE, April 2 -- Washington State House Speaker Pro Tem John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, was honored before his fellow law enforcement officers Wednesday for his legislative efforts to promote traffic safety in Washington, particularly his work to gain passage of the primary enforcement seat belt law.

Lovick, a sergeant with the Washington State Patrol, received the First Annual Seat Belt Champion Award at the annual 3-FLAGS meeting of law enforcement officers from Washington, Oregon and British Columbia hosted by the Washington Traffic Safety Commission. The award was given to Lovick by the Meharry-State Farm Alliance, a partnering effort between Meharry Medical College of Nashville, Tennessee, a historically black medical school, and State Farm Insurance Companies to advance public policy initiatives such as passage of primary seat belt laws in order to increase use of auto passenger restraints, particularly among African Americans.

"The seat-belt law is saving lives every day," said Lovick. "But the folks who really deserve this award are the men and women of law enforcement who are protecting motorists by enforcing traffic safety laws."

The primary enforcement seat belt law, along with the state's Click It Or Ticket Project, have saved at least 31 lives, eliminated close to 1000 serious injury traffic collisions and spared about $51 million in hospital costs since the project's inception in May, 2002.

"Four years ago, data from a Meharry Medical College report identified the lower incidence of seat belt use among African Americans as a national public health crisis, leading to the creation of the Blue Ribbon Panel to Increase Seat Belt Use Among African Americans by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation," Meharry President John E. Maupin, Jr., D.D.S., said in presenting the award to Lovick. "Today, we see further evidence that this public health crisis is being remedied through the passage of primary seat belt laws, and the Meharry-State Farm Alliance commends Rep. John Lovick for his leadership in the State of Washington."

"Highway safety is a key priority for State Farm and we're grateful to Rep. Lovick for his work in the legislature on the issue. His efforts to protect lives on highways solidify the intent of the Meharry-State Farm Alliance. That kind of concern for Washington citizens is highly worthy of this special recognition," said Harold Gray, State Farm Senior Vice President - Pacific Northwest Zone.

African Americans, according to national research, have lower seat belt use rates than the overall population. However, recent studies have shown a sharp increase in seat belt use among African Americans, in part due to efforts such as primary enforcement laws and public awareness campaigns like the Click It Or Ticket Project. Since these initiatives went into effect last year, overall seat belt use in Washington has risen to 93 percent, the highest rate in the nation.

Nationwide, programs such as the Meharry-State Farm Alliance are beginning to have an impact as well. The chief executive of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Washington, D.C., singled out Meharry for specific mention when he released data in Chicago in March from NHTSA's latest roadside survey disclosing a sharp increase in safety seat belt use among African Americans.

NHTSA Administrator Jeffrey W. Runge, M.D., said his agency's latest survey shows that African Americans currently use safety belts 77 percent of the time, an 8-point increase since 2000 and the highest level reported since NHTSA began conducting such surveys nine years ago. The comparable figure for the U.S. population overall is 75 percent.

In his announcement, Dr. Runge said, "Gains in safety belt use by African Americans are attributable to a significant degree to efforts by Meharry Medical College, the Blue Ribbon Panel to Increase Seat Belt Use Among African Americans, and to a number of African-American organizations that implemented the panel's recommendations... these numbers are the result of years of hard work by our traffic safety partners in the African-American community. This is extremely heartening, and will quickly result in fewer deaths and injuries to our citizens."

During the 2003 legislative session, Lovick has continued his work to promote traffic safety, sponsoring a bill to increase penalties on drunk drivers who are arrested with child passengers in their cars. A recent Centers for Disease Control study found that 20 percent of traffic deaths that involve children also involve a drunk driver. In a majority of these cases, the drunk driver is transporting the children.

Lovick's measure, House Bill 1619, would add 60 days of ignition interlock use to the sentence of a person convicted of drunk driving with a child passenger.