vehicle restraint law;
applicability; penalty
House Bill 2402 provides that the operator of a motor vehicle designed for ten or fewer passengers must require each passenger under the age of sixteen in the motor vehicle wear a seat belt. It also increases the maximum civil penalty to twenty-five dollars for each violation.
Laws 1990, Chapter 240 established the requirement that each front seat occupant of a motor vehicle manufactured for the model year 1972 and thereafter wear the seat belt properly fastened while the vehicle is in motion.
The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety reports that enactment of this legislation will entitle Arizona to an additional $350,000.00 of federal funds if implemented prior to September 1, 2002.
The National Safety Council (NSC) reports that injuries received in traffic crashes are the leading cause of all injury-related deaths in America and the leading cause of death for people ages 6 through 24. Between 1983 and 1997, seat belt use in the United States rose from 14 percent to 69 percent of occupants, an increase that has been attributed to the passage of seat belt use laws. Recently, the seat belt use rate has increased very slowly, rising only a few percentage points during the last five years. In an effort to remedy this static rate and continue the trend of reducing injuries and deaths, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has set a goal to increase seat belt use to 90 percent by the year 2005. If this goal is achieved, an estimated 5,536 lives could be saved and 132,670 injuries could be prevented annually, leading to a savings of nearly $9 billion in foregone medical costs and avoided economic losses.
Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia have some form of seat belt law in place (New Hampshire is the only exception). The majority of these laws-known as secondary enforcement laws-require police officers to stop a vehicle for some other reason before issuing a citation for a seat belt violation. In Washington, where a secondary enforcement law has been in place since June 1989, the seat belt use rate is 84 percent, 15 points higher than the national average. This higher rate has been achieved, in part, through extensive enforcement and public education efforts.
Between 1998 and 2000, seat belt use in Arizona increased from 61.5% to 75.1%, a 13.6 percent gain in seat belt usage.
Makes a technical and conforming change.