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Ohio’s Safety Belt Law
Ohio’s safety belt law was enacted in March 1986 and revised in November 1992. The law requires front-seat passengers of cars, vans, pickup and delivery trucks, taxicabs, commercial trucks and tractor-trailers, and buses with safety belts installed to wear them when these vehicles are driven on public roadways. For drivers under 18, the law requires you and all vehicle occupants to wear safety belts.
Drivers who violate the law are fined $30, while front-seat passengers are fined $20. Exempt from compliance are children already covered by the child safety restraint law; persons with medically-certified physical impairments; persons operating vehicles to deliver the mail or newspapers for home delivery; and persons in vehicles manufactured prior to 1966. Persons in vehicles equipped with air bags are not exempt from this law.
Law enforcement officials are prohibited from stopping a vehicle solely to enforce Ohio’s safety belt law. Citations can only be issued as a secondary action to another suspected offense. A violation of this law does not result in the assessment of points to an individual’s driving record.
Evidence regarding the proper use of safety belts is admissible against certain parties in a claim for damages for the injury or death of the occupant of the vehicle.
Ohio safety belt usage rates
- The usage rate was 43.5% in 1986
- In 2006, the usage rate was 81.7%, higher than 2005’s 78.7% rate
- Usage rates for drivers (82.0%) are higher than those of passengers (80.8%)
- Female occupants have higher usage rates (85.3% than male occupants (78.5%)
- Usage rates for pickup trucks (74.5%) are much lower than those of passenger cars (82.0%).
Note: For passenger cars, minivans and SUVs. Pickups
included in usage rates beginning in 1998.
Source: Ohio Department of Public Safety
US safety belt usage rates
The US safety belt usage rate reached an all-time high of 82% in July 2005. The National Occupant Protection Use Survey (NOPUS) is conducted annually by the National Center for Statistics and Analysis in NHTSA. Other key findings included:
- 82% was a statistically significant increase from 2004’s 80%.
- States with primary enforcement laws continued to have higher belt use rates than states with only secondary enforcement laws- 85% versus 75%.
- Two areas of increased use during 2004-2005 were in pickup trucks and in rural areas. Each had a 3-percentage point increase in belt use.
Mandatory safety belt use is law in 49 states and the District of Columbia – New Hampshire is the sole state without a mandatory law. Laws in most states apply only to front-seat occupants, although 17 states and DC also cover all rear-seat occupants. The safety belt defense is permitted in 14 states – including Ohio – meaning damages collected by someone in a crash may be reduced for failure to use a safety belt at the time of the crash.
For a list of states and their belt use laws, visit the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) at www.iihs.org/laws/state_laws/restrain3.html.
NHTSA published “Safety Belt Use in 2005 – Overall Results” in August 2005. The summary is available online at http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/RNotes/2005/809-932/images/809932.pdf
(no figures provided for 1995 and 1997)
Source: National Occupant Protection Use Survey, National
Center for Statistics and Analysis, NHTSA
The move for primary enforcement
Over the years, legislation continues to be introduced that would mandate the failure to wear seat belts a primary traffic offense in Ohio. Belt use laws in 25 states and DC are primary enforcement laws, meaning law enforcement can stop vehicles solely for belt law violations.
A January 2005 IIHS study found that when states strengthen their safety belts laws from secondary- to primary-enforcement, driver death rates decline by an estimated 7%. The study was a first to evaluate the effect on traffic deaths of shifting from secondary- to primary-enforcement. IIHS study information is summarized at www.iihs.org/news/2005/iihs_news_011305.pdf.
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New Hampshire rejected a bill in May 2007 requiring adults to wear seat belts and continues to be the only one in the US without a mandatory seat belt law. The state would have received $3.7 million in federal funds by enacting a mandatory seat-belt law.
(The New York Times, June 1, 2007) |
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