Bills would require use of seat belts

The Transportation and Telecommunications Committee heard testimony Feb. 11 on two bills that would require all vehicle passengers to wear seat belts.

The bills also would make enforcement of wearing a seat belt a primary action, allowing law enforcement to stop drivers solely for being in violation. Enforcement of the law currently is a secondary action, meaning the driver must first be cited or charged with some other violation.

Under LB10, introduced by Omaha Sen. Bob Krist, all occupants of a vehicle would be required to wear a seat belt. Violations would be an infraction with a $25 fine.

Krist said deployed airbags sometimes cause the most injury to passengers who are involved in car accidents. Some vehicles have backseat airbags, he said, so those passengers should be seated properly to reduce such injuries.

Under the second bill, vehicle passengers who are not wearing seat belts would be assessed one point on their operator’s license and would be fined $100 per violation.

Scottsbluff Sen. John Harms, sponsor of LB189, said that requiring passengers to wear seat belts would decrease fatalities and emergency room costs resulting from car accidents.

Harms said data collected by the state Department of Health and Human Services on emergency room costs associated with a lack of seat belt usage was “staggering.” The costs for patients who were not wearing seat belts during an accident averaged $5,000, as opposed to $2,000 for those who were, he said.

Joseph Stothert, the trauma medical director at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, testified in support of the bill, saying that over 75 percent of crash victims who were declared dead at the scene were not wearing seat belts.

“The most effective way to prevent the misery caused by trauma is to prevent the trauma,” he said. “[Seat belts] save lives. The more restrained you are, the more protected you are.”

Bev Reicks, chief executive officer of the National Safety Council of Nebraska, testified in support, saying the number of passengers who wear seat belts in Nebraska has not increased since 2004. States that have primary enforcement of seat belt laws have had an increase in usage among high-risk drivers, she said.

Andrea Frazier, the state project specialist for Mother’s Against Drunk Driving, also testified in support, saying Nebraska had 90 fatalities in 2012 resulting from drunk drivers.

“Drunk drivers are the least likely to buckle up,” Frazier said. “Therefore, being able to stop them for not wearing a seat belt may reduce the number of drunk drivers.”

No one testified in opposition to either LB10 or LB189 and the committee took no immediate action on the bills.