HOW AND WHY NHTSA GETS STATES TO PASS SEATBELT LAWS

NHTSA is required by federal law (23 USC 402, 405, and 406)

to promote seatbelts. In addition, they are, and have been for years,

pressured by certain United States Senators, particularly those on the

transportation subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which

has jurisdiction over their budget, to do so "aggressively" and with

"zeal", and have been given hundreds of millions of dollars for that

purpose. Thus, they have never done any honest research to determine

whether seatbelts are a good idea or not. They have not thought it wise

to question the conclusion they have been ordered to come to by those who

control their budget.

Independent investigators have, however, done research in

this area and have found that seatbelt laws increase, not decrease, the

fatality rate and the severity of injuries in automobile accidents. For

a complete report on this along with an extensive bibliography, please

read "The Truth About Seatbelts" on this web-site.

In order to carry out the wishes of congress, NHTSA has set up a

huge national organization to lobby states to pass primary and other

seatbelt laws. This consists not merely of employees of NHTSA, but

of many organizations controlled, and even created by NHTSA. Among these

are MADD (formerly known as Mothers Against Drunk Driving), the so-called

"Seatbelt and Airbag Campaign of the National Safety Council", "Buckle

Up America", and many others. These are basically phony front organizations

created or taken over by NHTSA. In fact, NHTSA has taken control of

practically all of the automotive safety organizations in this country

by the simple expedient of subsidizing their budgets.

Under current funding, (P.L. 110-161, Division K), NHTSA gets $124.5

million dollars a year for so-called "Safety Belt Performance Grants"

under 23 USC 406. This money goes to states which achieve 85% seatbelt

use or which pass a primary seatbelt law. In addition, NHTSA gets $25

million dollars for "Occupant Protection Incentive Grants" under 23 USC 405,

which goes to states to help them enforce such laws, as well as $29 million

for "high visibility enforcement".

This money is not distributed evenly. Rather, NHTSA singles out

certain states each year as target states to get them to pass a primary

seatbelt law.

Most of the money from these grants goes to police departments,

highway "safety" departments, and public health departments, which

may explain why these departments are so enthusiastic about primary

seatbelt laws. NHTSA routinely encourages, coaches and assists these

departments in lobbying for such laws. Part of this routine is what we

call "the show". This show, produced, written and directed by NHTSA, has

been performed for legislative committees all over the country for the

last five years. Basically, it consists of the police chief, the head

of the highway "safety" department, the head of the public health

department (or one of their subordinates), the local representative of

MADD, someone variously described as a "home maker" or "mother", a teen

ager and sometimes one or two other people, variously described as a

"child advocate" or "safety advocate", all reading from a script supplied

to them by NHTSA. The testimony is a clever mixture of false, misleading,

emotional, and irrelevant statements.