All States Should Make Wearing Seatbelts Mandatory

Wearing seatbelts in an automobile should be mandatory in all states. So far, only seventeen states and the District of Columbia have enacted a law allowing police to stop and ticket a driver for not wearing a seat belt, a primary law, just like any other violation. Connecticut has a primary law and has signs saying, “Buckle UpâÂ?¦It’s the Law”. The remaining 32 states have secondary laws that allow police to ticket a driver for not wearing a seat belt but only after the person has been stopped or ticketed for another violation. One state does not have any seat belt law at all.

Studies find that primary mandatory seatbelt laws results in their increased usage. States that have primary laws have stated that seat belt use in their states has risen 10% to 15% higher than in states, which have secondary laws. After Louisiana passed a primary law requiring the usage of seatbelts, child restraint use rose from 45% to 82% when no new child restraint laws were passed.

Everyone would agree that protecting lives with seat belts is at least as important as a broken tail light or littering. While virtually every state has primary laws that allow police to stop and ticket a violator for having a broken taillight or for tossing trash out the window, not all states have primary laws for seat belt use. If every state adapted a primary seat belt law, we would save 1,900 lives, prevent 49,000 injuries and save Americans $3 billion in health care, taxes, and insurance costs in just the first year alone. Inpatient hospital care costs for an unbelted crash victim are 50% higher than those for a crash victim who was wearing a seat belt. Society picks up 85% of these costs, not the individuals in the accident. Finally, the National Safety Council has reported that failure to buckle up contributes to more fatalities than any other single traffic safety-related behavior.