Bill Requiring Children to Wear Seatbelts Passes Oklahoma House

As spring starts in earnest and more families take to the highways for vacations and road trips, the risk of car accidents goes up. You may not be aware that, currently in Oklahoma, children between the ages of eight and 13 can ride in the backs of vehicles without having to wear a seatbelt. A bill recently passed in the Oklahoma House aims to change this.

Authored by Rep. Emily Virgin (D-Norman), HB3026 would require every person under the age of 14 to wear a seat belt or be in a child passenger restraint system while in the back seat of a motor vehicle. Senator Ervin Yen plans to introduce the bill into the Senate. Yen was unaware that it was even legal for children to ride unrestrained in the backs of cars until he heard about the bill. It appears the last law, updated in 2015, omitted this age group from mandatory seatbelt usage. “I said what? That’s crazy! How did that happen? I don’t know. It’s a loophole, I guess,” Yen said, according to Oklahoma’s KFOR.com. “Surely it was not intentional.”

The bill passed the House with a vote of 51-41. One of the representatives who voted against it, Todd Russ, worried about excessive fines. He told KFOR.com, “I heard a mom, a single mom, had a child in a seat belt, didn’t meet the legal requirements of the attachments and by the time they got through citing all the violations it was over $900 in fines for a seat belt violation. It wasn’t that they weren’t buckled up, they weren’t buckled up correctly.”

Drivers in violation of the proposed law would be hit with a $50 fine.

Children and motor vehicle accidents

Car accidents are the leading cause of death for Oklahoma children aged one to 18, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Health. Along with this statistic, AAA also shared the following:

• Without this bill, Oklahoma fails to meet the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations that seatbelts be worn by all children as they outgrow booster seats, and that children under 13 ride in the rear seats of vehicles.
• Currently, law enforcement can’t require adults to belt in child passengers.
• Over the past five years, more than 5,000 children between eight and 13 were injured or killed in car accidents in Oklahoma. 660 of them weren’t wearing seat belts or using a car seat.
• The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) claims the number of injuries and fatalities can be reduced by half annually if every child is properly restrained in a vehicle.

Proper seat belt usage

It’s easy to ensure your child or teen is buckled up correctly:

• The lap belt should fit the child low across the hips and thighs—not across the abdomen.
• The shoulder belt goes across the collarbone and chest, without cutting into the abdomen or neck.
• Children under age 13 should be properly restrained in the back seat.
• Teenagers should wear lap and shoulder belts in every seat in a motor vehicle, both the front and the back.
• All passengers, no matter their age, should wear a seat belt.

If you or a loved one were hurt in a car accident because of the negligence of another, the Oklahoma City car wreck lawyers at Cunningham & Mears are here to help. Let us fight for the compensation you deserve. For a free consultation at our offices, call 405-232-1212 or fill out our contact form today.