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Seat-belt PSA in Spanish irks lawmaker

By Ed Sealover, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 27, 2009 at 12:05 a.m.

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State Sen. David Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs

Photo by Preston Gannaway / The Rocky

State Sen. David Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs

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A Colorado Springs lawmaker is angry about a Colorado Department of Transportation public- service announcement aimed at Spanish-speaking drivers.

CDOT is expected today to introduce the PSA, in which the announcer, speaking in Spanish, asks drivers to buckle up. It will be up to television stations, such as Univision, to determine whether and when they run the ad.

Transportation department leaders decided to shoot the PSA after statistics showed that almost 60 percent of the 80 Hispanics killed in traffic accidents last year were not wearing seat belts, CDOT spokeswoman Stacy Stegman said. That accounted for a full 23 percent of the unbuckled accident deaths in Colorado, she said.

"We know that we have got to expand our efforts to increase seat-belt use in the Hispanic community," Stegman said of the ad, which is the first foreign-language PSA developed by the department.

But Republican Sen. Dave Schultheis said the ad will further segregate the Spanish-speaking community from the rest of Colorado's population.

New immigrants need to learn to speak English and be able to read road signs to keep the highways safe and help them assimilate, he said.

"This is not a Hispanic vs. non- Hispanic issue. We have to look at people as people, not as a race," Schultheis said. "And where is this going to end? Can we expect a new round of PSAs from CDOT this year in Vietnamese, Mandarin Chinese or some other foreign language?"

Stegman replied that if statistics showed a high proportion of Vietnamese were failing to buckle up, CDOT might also create such ads for that community.

"What we're worried about is saving lives," she said.

Schultheis touched on another hot-button issue earlier in the day but stirred far less controversy.

He wore a black band on his left arm to protest President Barack Obama's decision to end a funding ban on overseas organizations that perform or discuss abortions with pregnant women. Several other legislators joined Schultheis.

Schultheis got little notice and no direct negative feedback Monday.

"I'm trying to do this in the spirit of Martin Luther King," he said. "It's just a silent protest."

sealovere@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5438

Comments

  • January 27, 2009

    1:19 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    paterfamilas writes:

    Sen. Schultheis,

    Would you also recommend a brighter light in a flashing walk, don't walk, sign for blind people?

    Maybe a louder warning for deaf drivers?

    It is a safety issue. If one person gets the message, who would not have, and one life is saved, it is worth it.

    Personally, I don't like being told to push the 1 button for English. I don't care if they have a 2 button for Spanish, 3 for Vietnamese, 4 for Mandarin (well it might be better as a subroutine so I don't have to wait so long.) But that's just me.

  • January 27, 2009

    2:58 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    vendari01 writes:

    For all of me, if there are enough Bantus in the viewing audience, they'd be welcome to put the message into seventh dialect Swahili, or whatever. It isn't like I'm being forced to learn the language, and I, too, want to see more lives saved.

  • January 28, 2009

    8:38 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    jmjohnson writes:

    I don't know about other people, but if I moved to Germany or Greece, I would do my best to learn the language as best I could and to obey the local laws and customs. That's just being respectful of other cultures and countries. If you're just there for a vacation, you might not need to know as much as if you lived there, but if you planned to live there, then it's only right that you don't try to impose your culture and language on them. The same is true of America.

    I find it interesting that the same people who decry the "Ugly American" who expects everyone to know English when he travels abroad are the same people who decry those who ask that visitors and residents of the US learn English. Why the double standard? When Americans travel to other countries, they should respect those countries language, history, and culture. Likewise, when people move to the US, they should respect our collective language (English), history and culture.

    Yes, we are a nation of immigrants, yes, we have a rocky history, but we have developed and evolved into a nation that speaks English as the predominant language. If I traveled to or moved to Mexico, I would NOT expect people to learn English to accommodate me or to celebrate the 4th of July or honor the US Founding Fathers.