00987733

Component

http://onlinepubs.trb.org...nepubs/circulars/ec072.pdf

The author comments on the paper "Minorities and Primary Versus Secondary Belt Use Enforcement" by D. Pruesser, M. Solomon, and L. Cosgrove, expands upon the paper's findings, and suggests some additional research. The paper concludes that primary enforcement (involving both laws and actual enforcement) is associated with substantially higher seat belt use rates among racial minorities (primarily African Americans and Hispanic Americans) without resulting in proportionally greater citation rates for these groups (relative to the citation rates for whites). This clearly seems to be the case, but there is more to the story. First, as Pruesser, Solomon and Cosgrove point out to some extent, blacks and Hispanics (compared with whites) also appear to be both more aware of changes in legislation and primary enforcement and have a greater "respect" for these changes in that they perceive that they will lead to a greater increase in the intensity of enforcement and the number of citations. At the same time, however, telephone surveys conducted by a variety of organizations in a variety of circumstances uniformly report that blacks and Hispanics also support primary laws and enforcement to a greater extent than whites and they are more likely to conclude that primary enforcement (or intensified enforcement) is the correct way to increase safety belt use. The author's commentary reviews briefly these issues of sensitivity and support and discusses implications for additional research that may be needed. Admittedly, the observations provided come from a mixture of studies of changes in laws and changes in levels of enforcement. However, they are relevant to the primary law issue in that they all relate to the measured support for such laws among minority communities.

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00987728

English

p. 30-32

2005-1

Transportation Research Circular

Putting Research Into Action: A Symposium on the Implementation of Research-Based Impaired Driving Countermeasures

African Americans; Countermeasures; Drunk driving; Hispanics; Impaired drivers; Implementation; Laws; Minorities; Research; Seat belts; Traffic citations; Traffic law enforcement; Utilization

Primary enforcement; Secondary enforcement

Highways; Law; Research; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor

TRIS, TRB

Mar 22 2005 12:00AM

• CHALLENGES TO IGNITION INTERLOCK PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION
• COMMENTARY ON "GENERAL THEORY ON TRANSLATING RESEARCH INTO POLICY AND PRACTICE"
• COMMENTARY ON "THE FALL AND RISE OF GRADUATED LICENSING IN NORTH AMERICA," "THE CASE FOR 0.08% PER SE LAWS," AND UNDERAGE DRINKING ENFORCEMENT TRAINING CENTER
• COMMENTARY ON "VEHICLE SANCTIONS FOR REPEAT DRIVING WHILE INTOXICATED OFFENDERS" AND ON "CHALLENGES TO IGNITION INTERLOCK PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION"
• COMMENTARY ON ENFORCEMENT CHALLENGES
• GENERAL THEORY ON TRANSLATING RESEARCH INTO POLICY AND PRACTICE
• IMPLEMENTING IMPAIRED DRIVING COUNTERMEASURES: PUTTING RESEARCH INTO ACTION, A SYMPOSIUM, AUGUST 21-23, 2003, IRVINE, CALIFORNIA. FOREWORD
• MEASURING SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITY ACTION IN ALCOHOL PREVENTION
• MINORITIES AND PRIMARY VERSUS SECONDARY BELT USE ENFORCEMENT
• PREVENTING ALCOHOL-RELATED PROBLEMS: PUBLIC POLICY STRATEGIES
• PUTTING RESEARCH INTO ACTION: SOBRIETY CHECKPOINTS SAVE LIVES
• THE CASE FOR 0.08% PER SE LAWS
• THE FALL AND RISE OF GRADUATED LICENSING IN NORTH AMERICA
• THE PASSPOINT SYSTEM--PASSIVE SENSORS AT MINICHECKPOINTS: BRINGING AUSTRALIA'S RANDOM BREATH TEST SYSTEM TO THE UNITED STATES
• THE PROBLEM DRIVER DETECTION SYSTEM: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
• VEHICLE SANCTIONS FOR REPEAT DRIVING WHILE INTOXICATED OFFENDERS: FACTORS THAT FACILITATE OR IMPEDE THEIR ADOPTION OR IMPLEMENTATION