OKLAHOMA CITY – A state lawmaker wants to require all passengers driving in motor autos to put on a seat belt, and likewise repair a state legislation that eliminated the requirement that youngsters be buckled up.
State Sen. Carri Hicks (D-Oklahoma City) mentioned Senate Bill 106 and Senate Bill 164 will possible each be powerful sells when the Legislature convenes subsequent month, however mentioned Oklahoma has the very best accident fatality price within the nation, and she or he 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 youngsters, together with these 8 and older, be buckled up.
She mentioned she’s unsuccessfully run comparable laws for 5 years.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reviews 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 youngsters 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 working laws that will have required youngsters to be buckled up for at the very 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 youngsters to put on seat belts, however in 2016, legislators revamped the legislation in an effort to enhance toddler and automotive seat restraint laws. Somehow, Ford mentioned, legislators “inadvertently forgot” to add again within the part requiring youngsters 8 and older to put on a seat belt.
A former legislation enforcement official of over twenty years, Ford has been attempting to shut the loophole since he was elected a 12 months later.
Ford mentioned he used to work accidents involving youngsters who have been unrestrained. He additionally remembers an accident the place two youngsters, who have been sporting 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 youngsters 12 and underneath died in crashes, the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office reported Tuesday.
Ford mentioned beforehand assist was largely divided between city and rural communities. Rural lawmakers feared that county sheriff’s would sit out on filth roads and look for mother and father crossing from pasture to pasture. Kids typically trip 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 comparable laws once more, however is taking a 12 months off. However, he mentioned he’ll think about authoring Hicks’ measure if she will be able to get it via the Senate.
Janelle Stecklein covers the Oklahoma Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and web sites. Reach her at [email protected].
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