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Missouri forgoes millions in aid
By Shane Graber
Of the Post-Dispatch
02/23/2004
Missouri's crumbling and complained-about highways missed out on millions of federal dollars and could risk even more if state lawmakers do not adopt mandatory seat belt and open container laws.
With no law banning open containers of alcoholic beverages in cars, the state has been stuck under a federal order requiring it to spend $22.7 million in federal money during the last three years on safety projects instead of building and fixing highways. The government mandated in 2001 that all states either pass open container laws or spend a percentage of federal money on safety improvements.
Missouri transportation officials expect to divert an additional $12 million in federal road money this year because of the order.
And without a primary seat belt law - which would allow police officers to stop vehicles just for seat belt violations - Missouri would miss out on $77 million in federal money over the next three years, under a new highway bill that Congress is debating.
That amount includes a one-time $17 million federal incentive if Missouri adopts a primary seat belt law.
Under a current scenario in the highway bill, the federal government would redirect money from states that don't have primary seat belt laws to states that do.
"That is unfortunate because our residents are asking us to give them pavement more than anything right now," said Missouri Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O'Fallon.
Dr. Jeffrey W. Runge, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told the Missouri House Transportation Committee this month that a primary seat belt law in the state would save 89 lives and prevent more than 1,000 serious injuries each year.
About 73 percent of Missourians buckle up, Runge said. The national average is 79 percent. In 2002, traffic accidents in Missouri killed 995 people, and 71 percent of them were not wearing seat belts.
State Sen. Jon Dolan, R-Lake Saint Louis, called the primary seat belt bill the most important traffic safety issue this session.
"I feel it's time for us to talk about ways to make it rain federal highway dollars," said Dolan, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.
Dolan, though, feels the open containers bill doesn't have the votes to pass the House, so he won't make it a priority in the Senate.
"We've been down that road before," Dolan said. "That road is littered with the carcasses of well-meaning city politicians who have been hit hard by their rural colleagues. And open containers is not going to lose us money. It just forces us to spend a certain amount of money on safety, which I'm fine with."
Davis drives Interstate 70 every week to get to Jefferson City. She has watched highway workers installing cables to prevent crossover accidents. The same money could have been spent on improving the road, she said.
"I watched them putting that little wire in the median as I'm trying to avoid ruining my front end on all the potholes," she said. "I'm going to do damage to my alignment whether there's a wire there or not."
The open container bill is as important as seat belts, Davis said. She filed a bill to prohibit anyone in a vehicle from having an open alcoholic beverage while on the road or the shoulder.
The current law prohibits only the driver from having an open container. The bill excludes recreational motor vehicles, buses, taxis and limousines.
But an open container law would crowd courts with difficult, costly, time-consuming cases, Dolan said. As for safety concerns, a 0.08 percent limit on a driver's blood-alcohol content accomplishes what an open container law would. Missouri passed the 0.08 limit in 2001 and has received $10.5 million from the federal government because of it.
During a state of transportation address to the Legislature last month, outgoing Missouri Transportation Director Henry Hungerbeeler said that banning open containers and passing a primary seat belt law "will save lives and money and won't cost us a cent."
Along with Missouri, 13 states - Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming - allow open containers. They, too, have had to divert millions in federal money.
Illinois has not allowed open containers since the 1970s. As a result, Illinois' Transportation Department has been able to spend $51.3 million in federal money on highway construction and improvement over the last three years.
"I don't understand why the beverage industry is opposing it," said Davis, the Missouri lawmaker. "And that's the main reason it hasn't passed."
Davis asked industry representatives to support the open container ban, but they declined, she said.
"From a public relations standpoint, they ought to get behind this bill. They should be concerned about their own perception."
Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. believes Missouri already has the necessary laws that make drunken driving illegal.
"In light of this, we believe there is no need to pass new laws to make it illegal for an adult passenger to be able to enjoy a beer while traveling with friends for an evening out or to see a ballgame," Rod Forth, vice president for government affairs, said in an e-mail statement.
Despite the federal government's "heavy-handed efforts" to pass open container laws, Forth said, lawmakers should focus on ways to enforce existing laws and passing more laws that target high blood-alcohol content and repeat drunken driving offenders.
At least 21 states, including Illinois, have primary seat belt laws. About 80 percent of Illinois drivers wear seat belts. Missouri must catch up with those figures, said state Rep. Trent Skaggs, D-Kansas City.
The state's highways are losing out on too much money, and the state Transportation Department shouldn't shoulder all the blame, he said.
"If we're going to complain that MoDOT isn't doing a good job, then I think we have a responsibility to get as much federal matching dollars as possible," said Skaggs, who filed a catch-all bill covering open containers and seat belts. "And if that requires us buckling our seat belts, more power to us."
The bills are HB1121, 1200 and 1473.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Missouri forgoes millions in aid
By Shane Graber
Of the Post-Dispatch
02/23/2004
Missouri's crumbling and complained-about highways missed out on millions of federal dollars and could risk even more if state lawmakers do not adopt mandatory seat belt and open container laws.
With no law banning open containers of alcoholic beverages in cars, the state has been stuck under a federal order requiring it to spend $22.7 million in federal money during the last three years on safety projects instead of building and fixing highways. The government mandated in 2001 that all states either pass open container laws or spend a percentage of federal money on safety improvements.
Missouri transportation officials expect to divert an additional $12 million in federal road money this year because of the order.
And without a primary seat belt law - which would allow police officers to stop vehicles just for seat belt violations - Missouri would miss out on $77 million in federal money over the next three years, under a new highway bill that Congress is debating.
That amount includes a one-time $17 million federal incentive if Missouri adopts a primary seat belt law.
Under a current scenario in the highway bill, the federal government would redirect money from states that don't have primary seat belt laws to states that do.
"That is unfortunate because our residents are asking us to give them pavement more than anything right now," said Missouri Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O'Fallon.
Dr. Jeffrey W. Runge, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told the Missouri House Transportation Committee this month that a primary seat belt law in the state would save 89 lives and prevent more than 1,000 serious injuries each year.
About 73 percent of Missourians buckle up, Runge said. The national average is 79 percent. In 2002, traffic accidents in Missouri killed 995 people, and 71 percent of them were not wearing seat belts.
State Sen. Jon Dolan, R-Lake Saint Louis, called the primary seat belt bill the most important traffic safety issue this session.
"I feel it's time for us to talk about ways to make it rain federal highway dollars," said Dolan, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.
Dolan, though, feels the open containers bill doesn't have the votes to pass the House, so he won't make it a priority in the Senate.
"We've been down that road before," Dolan said. "That road is littered with the carcasses of well-meaning city politicians who have been hit hard by their rural colleagues. And open containers is not going to lose us money. It just forces us to spend a certain amount of money on safety, which I'm fine with."
Davis drives Interstate 70 every week to get to Jefferson City. She has watched highway workers installing cables to prevent crossover accidents. The same money could have been spent on improving the road, she said.
"I watched them putting that little wire in the median as I'm trying to avoid ruining my front end on all the potholes," she said. "I'm going to do damage to my alignment whether there's a wire there or not."
The open container bill is as important as seat belts, Davis said. She filed a bill to prohibit anyone in a vehicle from having an open alcoholic beverage while on the road or the shoulder.
The current law prohibits only the driver from having an open container. The bill excludes recreational motor vehicles, buses, taxis and limousines.
But an open container law would crowd courts with difficult, costly, time-consuming cases, Dolan said. As for safety concerns, a 0.08 percent limit on a driver's blood-alcohol content accomplishes what an open container law would. Missouri passed the 0.08 limit in 2001 and has received $10.5 million from the federal government because of it.
During a state of transportation address to the Legislature last month, outgoing Missouri Transportation Director Henry Hungerbeeler said that banning open containers and passing a primary seat belt law "will save lives and money and won't cost us a cent."
Along with Missouri, 13 states - Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming - allow open containers. They, too, have had to divert millions in federal money.
Illinois has not allowed open containers since the 1970s. As a result, Illinois' Transportation Department has been able to spend $51.3 million in federal money on highway construction and improvement over the last three years.
"I don't understand why the beverage industry is opposing it," said Davis, the Missouri lawmaker. "And that's the main reason it hasn't passed."
Davis asked industry representatives to support the open container ban, but they declined, she said.
"From a public relations standpoint, they ought to get behind this bill. They should be concerned about their own perception."
Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. believes Missouri already has the necessary laws that make drunken driving illegal.
"In light of this, we believe there is no need to pass new laws to make it illegal for an adult passenger to be able to enjoy a beer while traveling with friends for an evening out or to see a ballgame," Rod Forth, vice president for government affairs, said in an e-mail statement.
Despite the federal government's "heavy-handed efforts" to pass open container laws, Forth said, lawmakers should focus on ways to enforce existing laws and passing more laws that target high blood-alcohol content and repeat drunken driving offenders.
At least 21 states, including Illinois, have primary seat belt laws. About 80 percent of Illinois drivers wear seat belts. Missouri must catch up with those figures, said state Rep. Trent Skaggs, D-Kansas City.
The state's highways are losing out on too much money, and the state Transportation Department shouldn't shoulder all the blame, he said.
"If we're going to complain that MoDOT isn't doing a good job, then I think we have a responsibility to get as much federal matching dollars as possible," said Skaggs, who filed a catch-all bill covering open containers and seat belts. "And if that requires us buckling our seat belts, more power to us."
The bills are HB1121, 1200 and 1473.
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