Original Article
Seatbelt Law Enforcement and Motor Vehicle Crash Fatalities Among Blacks and Whites in Louisiana and Mississippi
Abstract
Background: Seatbelt laws save lives. Primary enforcement (allowing citations solely for seatbelt nonuse) is a more effective means of saving lives, yet seven southern states have no primary laws, due in part to concern about racial profiling.
Methods: Non-Hispanic, black:white (B:W), occupant motor vehicle crash mortality rate ratios (MRRs) were compared across the 15 to 64 age range over two time periods in two demographically comparable southern states (Louisiana and Mississippi).
Results: From 1992 to 1994 (when neither state had primary law) to 1996 to 1998 (when Louisiana had primary law) B:W MRRs were 0.73 (95% confidence interval = 0.61, 0.88) and 0.72 (0.60, 0.86) in Louisiana and 1.01 (0.9, 1.12) and 1.22 (1.10, 1.35) in Mississippi.
Conclusions: Successful opposition to primary seat belt enforcement may have the unintended effect of producing racial disparities in motor vehicle crash mortality that adversely affects blacks.
Key Points
* Primary enforcement of state seatbelt laws (i.e., motorists can be cited solely for violating a seatbelt law) saves more lives than secondary enforcement (i.e., motorists can be cited for nonuse of seatbelts only after being stopped for another violation).
* Concerns about differential enforcement (racial profiling) have been a major barrier to passage of primary law legislation in the South and elsewhere.
* We compared state-specific mortality among blacks and whites in the context of a natural experiment characterized by a primary law state (Louisiana) that was geographically contiguous with, and demographically comparable to, a secondary law state (Mississippi).
* Louisiana's passage of a primary law, in combination with Mississippi's failure to do so, was associated with a significantly lower black:white motor vehicle crash mortality disparity in Louisiana, and reciprocally, a significantly higher black:white motor vehicle crash mortality disparity in Mississippi.
* Successful opposition to primary seat belt laws may have the unintended effect of worsening racial disparities in mortality.
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