Racial profiling is often raised as an issue when States change their seat belt law from secondary enforcement (i.e., stop only for some other violation) to primary enforcement (i.e., stop for an observed belt law violation alone). Thirteen States made this change during the period 2000 to 2009, of which 7 did so early enough to allow for comparison of two years of data before the change to two years of data after the law change. Pre- and post- comparisons using fatal crash data demonstrated an overall drop in the number of front-seat occupant fatalities (-8% overall; -7% Caucasian, -11% Minority) and overall increases in belt use, both among Caucasians and minorities (+8 percentage points overall; +9 Caucasian, +5 Minority). Pre- and post- citation data by race were available from 4 States. Consistent with previous research, all four States showed that the percentage of tickets issued to minorities either stayed the same or decreased slightly from before to after the law change. Hospital discharge data (three States) indicated reductions in crash injury for both Caucasians and minorities. This study found that primary laws were related to gains in seat belt use without evidence of racial profiling associated with changing the law from secondary to primary. (Author/publisher)
Abstract