Just a few minute ago I received a phone call from a concerned grand-mother in town. She was asking me about Missouri’s seat belt and car seat laws. Apparently, her daughter was letting her granddaughter ride around in her car without being properly restrained. Wearing a seat belt and having your children in proper car seats is not only the law…it’s just plain common sense! If I see a vehicle with a child not properly seated and restrained, that vehicle will be stopped and the driver will be issued a summons. I am implementing a ZERO-TOLLERANCE policy to my officers when it comes to this issue! Why? I’m glad you asked. Driving or riding in an automobile can be dangerous. Nationally, motor vehicle crashes kill tens of thousands of drivers and passengers and injure nearly two million each year. The chance of being in an auto crash in your lifetime is virtually 100 percent. On average, you’ll be in a traffic crash every 10 years, and you have a one in 50 chance of being killed. No matter how safely you drive, you can’t control other drivers. Seat belts are your best protection against drivers who are careless or who have been drinking. It takes about three seconds to fasten your seat belt when you get into a car or truck to travel. Using lap/shoulder belts cuts your chances of being killed or seriously injured in a crash 40-50 percent.
Did you know that an unbelted occupant of a 30- mph car crash hits the windshield or other interior surfaces with the same impact as a fall from a three-story building? Did you know that people without seat belts have been killed at speeds as low as 12 mph? Here is a fact of interest… The effectiveness of an air bag system drops 40 percent when a seat belt is not used. Nationally, traffic crashes kill about five people every hour and, in Missouri, one person every nine hours. Seat belts would have saved the lives of more than half the car passengers killed each year. A driver’s chance of being killed in a traffic crash if not wearing a seat belt is 13 times greater than that of a driver who is buckled up.
How to use Seat Belts Properly:
A seat belt can only protect you if it’s used and used properly. Each person needs his/her own seat belt. Make sure all seat belts are working properly. Adjust your seat belt so it fits snugly over your hip bones. It should cross your lap low on the hips, not high across your stomach. Wear your seat belt as low on the hips as possible, so the impact force will be spread over the stronger hip bones. Seat belts should be worn snugly and with no slack. When you are pregnant, wear your seat belt underneath the abdomen. The best way to protect the fetus is to protect the mother.
Everyone riding in the front seat in automobiles and trucks with a licensed gross weight of less than 12,000 lbs. must wear seat belts.
Persons less than 18 years of age operating or riding in trucks (regardless of gross weight for which licensed) must wear seatbelts.
No person under age 18 is allowed to ride in the unenclosed bed of a truck with a licensed gross weight of less than 12,000 lbs. on lettered highways, federal and state maintained highways, and within city limits. There are exemptions for agricultural purposes, special events, and parades.
The law requires children under age four, regardless of their weight, riding in any type vehicle be secured in an approved child safety seat. To make sure the child safety seat meets Federal Safety Standard No. 213, check to see that it was manufactured after January 1981 and says dynamically tested on the label.
It is the driver’s responsibility to ensure passengers under the age of 16 are safely buckled up. Those 16 and over are responsible for themselves.
Remember, it’s not just the law. It’s common sense!
