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Section II

Why Standard Enforcement

What is Standard Enforcement?

Standard enforcement allows a police officer to stop a vehicle and issue a citation when the officer observes an unbelted driver or passenger. Secondary enforcement means a citation can only be written after the officer stops the vehicle for another infraction. Safety belt use laws are the only laws in America that make a distinction between standard and secondary enforcement. Standard enforcement is also referred to as primary enforcement (see box on page 7, "Terminology").

Virtually all traffic safety laws—and other laws, for that matter—are standard, except secondary enforcement safety belt use laws. In states with secondary laws, a police officer can stop a motorist for a burnt out taillight or an expired license tag, but cannot stop a motorist for violating the state’s seat belt law.

Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia now have seat belt use laws, but fewer than a third provide for standard enforcement procedures.

Increases in belt use have been made without a standard safety belt use law, but the greatest gains are possible when a standard law works in conjunction with enforcement,

States With Standard Enforcement Seat Belt Laws

education, and partnership efforts. Passing standard seat belt use laws in every state is essential to meeting the new national seat belt use goals.

Increasing adult belt use also has a significant impact on child safety. Observations conducted in 1996 showed that if a driver is wearing a seat belt, 86 percent of the time toddlers will also be restrained. If the driver is not wearing a seat belt, however, only 24 percent of the time will toddlers be restrained.

How Can a Standard Seat Belt Use Law Increase Use Rates?

A standard seat belt use law is much more enforceable than a secondary law. When combined with education and adjudication, an upgrade to standard enforcement will significantly raise belt use rates.

Enforcement

Allowing for standard enforcement procedures enhances the perceived importance of the seat belt law with both the public and the police. Ultimately, this leads to greater compliance. Standard enforcement sends a clear message that the state views seat belt use (and the seat belt law) as being essential for the safe operation of a motor vehicle. Standard seat belt use laws enhance law enforcement in other ways.

When police stop vehicles for traffic law violations, such as failure to use a seat belt, they often discover additional traffic or criminal violations that otherwise would have gone undetected. A minor traffic violation was the reason Timothy McVeigh, later convicted of the Oklahoma City bombing, initially was stopped by police.

North Carolina, which has had a standard seat belt law since 1985, launched an intensive, statewide campaign to increase seat belt use in 1993. Click It or Ticket combined law enforcement "blitzes" with extensive publicity. In the summer of 1993, three pilot efforts successfully raised seat belt use rates from about 63 percent to 80 percent. Telephone surveys following the pilots showed high public awareness and acceptance (85 percent of those who had heard of the program approved, and 75 percent said it should be implemented elsewhere).

The program was expanded statewide later that year. With strong support from top state officials, the insurance industry, safety groups and many others, North Carolina law enforcement agencies conducted 3,425 checkpoints across the state, resulting in nearly 37,000 seat belt and nearly 2,300 child restraint citations in 1993 alone. Seat belt use immediately rose 17 percentage points statewide (from 63 percent to 80 percent). Follow-up research shows support continues to be very high, with belt use now at 83 percent.

Education

In order for standard seat belt use laws to bring compliance up significantly, enforcement must be highly visible and combined with extensive public education efforts. Those not in the buckle-up habit must be informed of the law and its consequences, persuaded of the value of seat belt use, and convinced that authorities are serious about enforcement.

Whenever possible, public education messages should support and bring attention to the law and ongoing enforcement efforts. However, other messages can also be used to complement the program. For example, some messages may focus on costs:

Our children and young people are paying the price. Traffic-related injuries are the leading cause of death for children and young adults ages six to twenty-seven. Research also shows that minority youth are at even greater risk because they are less likely to be buckled up. And adult behavior affects children. Observations conducted in 1996 showed that if a driver is wearing a seat belt, 86 percent of the time toddlers will also be restrained. If the driver is not wearing a seat belt, however, only 24 percent of the time will toddlers be restrained. That is why law enforcement officials are stepping up their efforts to get everyone buckled up.

Society is paying the price. Eighty-five percent of all medical costs of crash victims fall on society, not the individuals involved. Medicare, Medicaid and other taxpayer funded sources pay 24 percent of those costs. When crash victims are unbuckled, their medical treatment costs are 50 percent higher. Traffic-related injuries are the leading cause of all injury deaths in America. This problem is serious and it is immediate. As a result, law enforcement officials throughout the state will be stepping up their efforts to get motorists and their passengers to buckle up.

Businesses are paying the price. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of worker deaths on the job. These crashes are costing employers $22,000 per crash and $110,000 per injury due to lost productivity and higher insurance and medical costs.

Experience has demonstrated that there simply is no way to achieve high (above 85 percent) seat belt use rates without strongly enforced laws that are widely publicized. Some states across the country have demonstrated use rate gains of 10-30 percentage points following an enforcement and publicity campaign, particularly after upgrading their seat belt law to allow for standard enforcement.

Special Traffic Enforcement Programs (STEPS), which combine enhanced enforcement with public education, have been implemented across the country with impressive results. North Carolina’s Click It or Ticket campaign helped raise seat belt use to 83 percent. Such programs are most effective in states which allow for standard enforcement procedures.

Adjudication

The third critical element of a standard seat belt use law is adjudication - a seat belt law must have "teeth" to be effective. The language of the law must be clear, and penalties must be strong enough to have a deterrent effect (see box page 11 for "Other Key Provisions Every State Seat Belt Law Needs").

Support for Standard Seat Belt Use Laws

Support for upgrading to standard enforcement can be found throughout the community, both from traditional safety, law enforcement and health organizations and from nontraditional groups in such fields as education and business (see box on next page). This support will increase as statewide usage increases, particularly after standard enforcement legislation has been enacted.

Other Key Provisions Every State Seat Belt Law Needs In addition to being enforced on a standard basis, a strong seat belt use law should include the following: Coverage of All Occupants in All Seating Positions—The driver should be responsible for seeing that everyone in the vehicle is properly buckled. Currently, some child passenger safety laws only cover children through age three. Most seat belt use laws only cover front seat occupants. Therefore, in these states, a child over three legally can ride in the back seat without being secured because the child is not covered by either the child passenger safety law or the (front seat-only) seat belt use law. Coverage of All Vehicles—Seat belt use laws should apply to all passenger vehicle types—vans, light trucks, sport utility vehicles and cars—in the state in which they are traveling. Penalties—Fines for seat belt use law violations should be significant enough to deter noncompliance. Evidence suggests that fines greater than $25 lead to higher seat belt use rates. Penalty points on the driver license is another way to deter noncompliance. In general, as the severity of the penalty increases, so will compliance.

State Seat Belt Use Law Provisions (as of December 1998)

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