OKLAHOMA CITY — A state lawmaker wants to require all passengers driving in motor automobiles to put on a seat belt, and in addition repair a state legislation that eliminated the requirement that kids be buckled up.
State Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, mentioned Senate Bill 106 and Senate Bill 164 will doubtless each be powerful sells when the Legislature convenes subsequent month, however mentioned Oklahoma has the very best accident fatality fee within the nation, and he or she believes that’s associated to Oklahoma’s seat belt laws.
Oklahoma legislation requires all front-seat occupants to be buckled up, however beginning at age 8 it’s non-compulsory for backseat passengers. Hicks mentioned Senate Bill 106 would require all passengers to put on seat belts. Senate Bill 164 would require all kids, together with these 8 and older, be buckled up.
She mentioned she’s unsuccessfully run related laws for 5 years.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety stories that 32 states require grownup rear-seat passengers to put on seat belts. Hicks mentioned Oklahoma is the one state that doesn’t require all kids to be buckled up whereas driving within the again seat.
Seat belts save lives, she mentioned.
“One of the biggest opportunities we have is to continue to educate the public on why it’s so important to wear your seat belt,” she mentioned. “Regardless of whether a law passes or not, I think it’s incredibly important that the public is still paying attention to road safety and realizing that they can do their part to keep their family safe.”
State Rep. Ross Ford, R-Broken Arrow, mentioned he’s tried operating laws that may have required kids to be buckled up for at the least three years, however all his payments stalled.
“Republicans believe that it is a government overreach to require kids to be buckled up,” Ford mentioned.
He mentioned Oklahoma used to require all kids to put on seat belts, however in 2016, legislators revamped the legislation in an effort to enhance toddler and automobile seat restraint laws. Somehow, Ford mentioned, legislators “inadvertently forgot” to add again within the part requiring kids 8 and older to put on a seat belt.
A former legislation enforcement official of over twenty years, Ford has been making an attempt to shut the loophole since he was elected a yr later.
Ford mentioned he used to work accidents involving kids who have been unrestrained. He additionally remembers an accident the place two kids, who have been carrying seat belts within the again seat, survived. Their mother and father, who weren’t buckled, died.
“I’ve seen kids just mutilated, too, by not being buckled up,” he mentioned. “And so, it’s just a shame we can’t get it passed.”
Between 2017 and 2021, 33 unrestrained kids 12 and beneath died in crashes, the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office reported Tuesday.
Ford mentioned beforehand help was largely divided between city and rural communities. Rural lawmakers feared that county sheriffs would sit out on grime roads and look for mother and father crossing from pasture to pasture. Kids typically experience unbuckled so as to leap out and open gates for their mother and father.
“I tried to explain to them that there’s no county sheriff that has the time just to sit out on a county road, a dirt road looking for someone,” he mentioned.
Ford mentioned he plans to run related laws once more, however is taking a yr off. However, he mentioned he’ll think about authoring Hicks’ measure if she will get it by the Senate.
Janelle Stecklein covers the Oklahoma Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and web sites. Reach her at [email protected].
submit credit score to Source link