State Police vow to enforce road safety for holiday

A day after House lawmakers rejected a primary seat belt law, the outgoing head of the Massachusetts State Police issued a stern warning yesterday to motorists to buckle up, obey speed limits, and don't drive drunk this Memorial Day weekend.

``If you don't obey Massachusetts' traffic laws, it's very likely, especially this weekend, that you will be caught," said Lieutenant Colonel Thomas G. Robbins . Ten people were killed in traffic accidents during the Memorial Day weekend in 2005, the highest number since 1996, he said. Alcohol was a factor in three of th e deaths, officials said.

Robbins said he plans to commit every member of his department to Operation Zero Tolerance, a crackdown on speeding, drunken driving, and seat belt violations. The operation will begin today and run through Memorial Day, and will include sobriety checkpoints, he said yesterday during a press conference at Carson Beach in South Boston.

Officials yesterday rolled out a 40-foot modified bus , dubbed the BAT-mobile for Breath Alcohol Testing, that was funded through a $378,000 Governor's Highway Safety Bureau grant and state money. The vehicle, which contains a holding cell and a roof-mounted camera, will be deployed to checkpoints this summer.

Robbins and Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey focused on seat belt use after House lawmakers defeated a bill that would have given police the right to pull over drivers for not buckling up. The Senate passed the bill last week, but on Tuesday, it failed in the House on a 76-to-80 vote. The current law, which took effect in 1994, allows officers to issue a $25 ticket to drivers for not wearing a seat belt only after stopping them for another violation.

Healey, flanked by state troopers, said, ``Regardless of what happened yesterday, it is the law of the land that you should buckle up. I support the primary seat belt law and I am disappointed."

Robbins declared ``that if you are stopped for a driving offense and not buckled up, you will be ticketed."

Madeline Nalley, a 16-year-old junior at Reading Memorial High School, who lost two friends in a car accident this year, said, ``It's important, whether there is a law or not, that you buckle up for your own safety." Her friends Amanda Nadeau and Scott Connolly, both 16, died in March when their car veered across Route 128 and slammed into a tree in Wakefield. Connolly was driving.