Safety Harness Law
All 50 U.S. states have laws on wearing safety harnesses, or seatbelts, inside a moving automobile. When it comes to infants and very young children, the requirements in some states are based on age, while others are based on size, or a combination of both. Judging by the fact that the majority of drivers and passengers wear their seatbelts, it appears most people do not view seatbelt laws as an invasion of privacy that mandates how they act inside their own privately owned car.
Other People Are Reading
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Types
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Safety harness laws for adults fall into two categories. Primary seatbelt laws are those that allow for a police officer to issue a citation for not wearing a seatbelt, even if there is no other infraction. These true "click it or ticket" laws allow officers to pull a motorist over for nothing more than failing to wear a safety harness. While 30 states and the District of Columbia have primary seatbelt laws, 20 states have secondary laws. In these states, a driver cannot be pulled over only for not wearing a seatbelt, and a citation can only be issued if there is some other infraction as well.
Age
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Most primary and secondary seatbelt laws apply only to adults and persons above a certain age. Between the ages of 13 and 16, a young adult becomes subject to the adult seatbelt laws in most states. The obvious exception is New Hampshire, which has no seatbelt requirement for adults, but a primary law for children under 18. Kentucky exempts adults over the age of 50 from mandatory seatbelt law compliance. A few states, like Texas and Oregon, have both an age and height limit at which the primary seatbelt laws apply.
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Seats
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Some states also distinguish between the front and rear seats in their safety harness laws. Many, like California, simply apply their primary seatbelt requirement to all seats. Other states, like Florida, enforce primary laws in all seats only for minor children, and limit the requirement for adults only to the front seat. In North Carolina, where a primary seat belt law is in force, the penalty for not wearing a harness is $10 in the rear seat, but $100 in the front seat as of 2009.
Infants
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Every state requires young children to be secured in a safety harness while in a moving vehicle. Most states specify an age or size at which the child is permitted to wear an adult seat belt. A few mandate a booster seat for in-betweeners, like Louisiana, which requires a booster seat for children between 40 and 50 lbs, or 4 and 5 years of age. Most states do not require a child seat or booster to be in the back seat, though a few, like Alabama require the seat of very young children to face the rear.
Controversy
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According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, states with secondary seat belt laws have 68 percent seatbelt use, while states with primary laws have 78 percent usage. Their goal of achieving 90 percent usage nationwide would save over 5,000 lives annually, they project. Seat belt laws are not universally applauded, however. Some see it as punishing people for an act (not wearing a seatbelt) that only puts themselves at risk. Others see it as an invasion of privacy, particularly when it gives a police officer the ability to pull over a driver and look for other violations. Though most people recognize wearing a seatbelt helps protect their safety, a relative few continue to see it as a violation of people's liberty to choose whether or not to wear a safety harness in their own car.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Gerdbrendel (CC-By-SA 3.0)
