With the vacation season approaching, there’s no doubt that many of you will be taking trips. Perhaps a cross-country journey is in your future? Where ever you go as a driver, you are responsible for understanding and following the rules of law in every state you drive in. Getting busted for not wearing your seat belt is a great way to put a big wrinkle in your vacation budget.
Did you know there are two types of seat belt laws? Primary and secondary.
Primary enforcement laws allow law enforcement officers to pull over drivers and ticket them if they are not wearing their seat belts. Secondary enforcement laws, on the other hand, only allow an officer to pull over drivers for a separate violation (speeding, headlight out, etc.) and then ticket them if they are not wearing their seat belts.
New Hampshire is the only state without a seat belt law for adults. All other states have either primary or secondary enforcement laws on the books.
As of April 2010, the following states have primary enforcement laws:
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois ,Indiana ,Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin
And these are the states that have secondary enforcement seat belt laws:
Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming
Who’s going on a road trip this year?
Those secondary laws are tricky. You see a family not wearing their belts in a secondary law state, and in order to make an effort to save their lives, you have to find something else wrong with the way they’re driving in order to call attention to the belts. Not A Fan! Make em all primary!
-Ryan (www.lesterglenn.com/blog)
I’d have to agree with you 100%. What’s the point of a law you can’t enforce?
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Paul Sansone, Jr.. Paul Sansone, Jr. said: The Seat belt Law and Your New Car http://carchatwithpaul.com/2010/04/14/the-seat-belt-law-and-your-new-car/ http://bit.ly/axY93S [...]