The Traveler

Issue date: 3/30/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Cody Bennett Freshman Jake Lane buckles his seat belt. Beginning June 30, a new Arkansas law will allow officers to pull over drivers if they are not wearing seat belts.

When UA junior Brett Weiand drives his show truck, as he has done since he was 16, he doesn't use a seat belt because he just doesn't have one. Under Arkansas law, if he doesn't warrant getting pulled over for a violation, such as speeding, then he doesn't face a penalty.

However, that changes June 30, when a new seat belt law makes a seat belt violation reason enough to pull a driver a over.

After a past automobile accident, Weiand was ejected from his truck; however, he walked away from the accident with bruised ribs while his friends suffered burns on their faces.

"That's why I don't wear seat belts," Weiand said. "Plus, I've been in the habit."

Although Weiand has a preference for not wearing seat belts, he doesn't advocate it.

"That's just my theory on it," Weiand said.

Senior Clayton Fiscus doubted whether police would be able to fully enforce the new law, especially when drivers have tinted windows.

"If you were getting pulled over and you didn't have a seat belt on, wouldn't you just slide it on real quick?" Fiscus said.

While an 82 percent seat belt use rate was reported nationwide by the National Occupant Protection Use Survey in 2008, the economic cost alone of motor vehicle crashes was $230.6 billion in 2000.

The new seat belt law is an example of a larger trend of states tightening restrictions to save on costs.

The state of Kansas may lose out on $11.2 million if it does not pass a new seat belt law, which must be done by June 30 to receive a grant.

As Arkansas is one of a handful of states operating on a surplus budget and still facing millions in projected reductions, cutting in all areas, including the medical costs of accidents involving passengers not wearing seat belts, is being implemented.

Drivers in states with the new law wore their seat belts 88 percent of the time, while, in comparison, states without a primary seat belt law saw people buckle up 75 percent of the time.

In fatal crashes, 76 percent of passenger vehicle occupants who were totally ejected from vehicles were killed in 2007, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

More than half of the passenger vehicle occupants killed in traffic crashes were unrestrained.

As county budgets tighten, one recession-proof method of stimulating cash flow is speeding tickets, while the fines collected from the new seat belt law are set to fund the purchase of video cameras for law enforcement vehicles through Senate-approved legislation.

Senior Caleb Sieck was indifferent to the new law.

"That doesn't sound like too big a deal since I started driving in Tulsa, where that was already the law," Sieck said. "It doesn't bother me either way."

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