State police prepare for stricter seat belt law

LITTLE ROCK A trooper's vow to ticket his mother for not wearing her seat belt inspired one of the ads Arkansas State Police are running to remind motorists to buckle up.

State Police officials unveiled a series of television spots Tuesday they're running in advance of the state's new primary seat belt law, which takes effect at the end of the month. Under current law, not wearing a seat belt is a secondary violation, meaning motorists could not be pulled over for that offense but could be ticketed for it if they were stopped for some other reason.

In one of the spots, Addie Gibson of Jacksonville portrays a driver pulled over by her son, a state trooper.

"If I would give my own mother a ticket, I wouldn't think twice about giving you one," the trooper in the ad says.

Gibson said the commercial was inspired partly by a story she used to tell about her son, Trooper Tim Ghoshon, who died from leukemia in 2005. Gibson said Ghoshon had twice warned her about not wearing her seat belt when driving to his house.

The third time, he told her, "Mom, you have been told to wear your seat belt. If I catch you out somewhere without your seat belt on, I'm going to write you a ticket," Gibson said Tuesday.

The spot is among several State Police are airing around the state, dubbing the new restrictions as a "law you can live with."

Col. Winford Phillips, director of Arkansas State Police, said he hoped to educate motorists about the new law with the ads. But State Police officials also said that there would not be any "grace period" where drivers would be given warnings instead of tickets.

"If you're stopped for some other violation or you're seen not wearing your seat belt, there will be some sort of enforcement action taken," said Maj. Ed Wolfe, highway patrol commander for the state's eastern region.

Phillips said he didn't expect the department would see a spike in tickets issued for seat belt violations and said police weren't looking at it as a new way to make money.

"The reason for this law is not to generate revenue or to write tickets," Phillips said. "It's to have the law enforced and followed by the citizens of the state."

Civil rights groups remain wary of the new law, warning that it could open the door to harassment of minority drivers by police.

Dale Charles, head of the Arkansas NAACP, said he expected to see an increase in the number of black and Hispanic drivers pulled over around the state because of the new law.

"We still feel this is the worst law that's been passed with no data collection, no system set up to monitor the overzealous use of the process when it relates to African Americans," Charles said.

Sen. Hank Wilkins IV, who sponsored the seat belt law, defended the measure and said that not everyone from the NAACP opposed it. Wilkins also noted that he backed a companion bill requiring the state to set up a hotline for callers to report complaints of racial profiling.

With the new restriction, Arkansas will become the 27th state to enact a primary seat belt law and also can receive $9.5 million in federal transportation funds.

Romell Cooks, regional administrator with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said the state was required to enact the new law by July 1 to receive the funds. The state is expected to receive the money by Sept. 30.