• 19
  • August
    2010

Miami auto accident attorneys are aware that many states are moving to close a gap in seat belt laws that allows rear-seat, adult passengers in many states to ride legally without fastening a seat belt.

There are six states: Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey and Texas, that have expanded their seat belt laws to cover rear-seat occupants since 2007, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia require seat belts for all passengers. Florida does not.

Seat-belt use has steadily risen over the past ten years as states moved from secondary laws -- meaning an officer had to stop motorists for some other offense to cite them for not wearing a seat belt -- to primary seat belt laws, which allow police to stop motorists solely for having no seat belt on.

Nationally, the seat belt use rate was 84%. It ranged from 68% in Wyoming to 98% in Michigan, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). In 2008, the NHTSA says, seat belts saved more than 13,000 lives across the USA. Currently, no figures are available on deaths involving rear-seat passengers who were not wearing seat belts.

In 2008, the rate for rear seat belt use was 74%, compared with 83% for seat belt use in front seats. NHTSA reports that rear seat belt usage is higher in states that have laws requiring use in all seats.

In collisions, experts say, unbelted passengers in the back seat continue to move at the same rate of speed as the vehicle they're in until they hit something -- dashboard, windshield, seat back or people in the front seat. For some reason, many people view the back seat as somehow safer.

Source: USA Today "Where adults must always buckle up" August 19, 2010