Say Anything Blog

One legislator in North Dakota thinks seat belt laws need to be tougher, and would like to move seat belts up to a primary offense category.  Meaning that police officers could stop us if we’re suspected of not using our seat belts:

North Dakota has required motorists to use their seat belts for years, but a Fargo legislator and representatives of several state agencies say usage isn’t likely to rise unless the law is toughened.

“There’s just a certain segment of society ... I don’t think we’re going to make any more progress,” said Rep. Ed Gruchalla, D-Fargo, who is a former state highway patrolman. “This will give us a dramatic increase.”

Gruchalla is sponsoring a bill that would allow North Dakota law officers to stop and ticket motorists if they are observed not using their seat belts. The House Transportation Committee held a hearing on the proposal Friday.

First off, since this is being done in the name of public safety, let’s look at the public safety numbers.  Per NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data here are the total number of traffic fatalities (not including motorcycles and non-vehicle occupants such as pedestrians) in North Dakota since our seat belt law went into effect:

2008: 104
2007: 98
2006: 103
2005: 106
2004: 84
2003: 94
2002: 93
2001: 98
2000: 75
1999: 112
1998: 85
1997: 96
1996: 76
1995: 65
1994: 78

Putting that into graphical form:

Seems to me that, since North Dakota’s original seat belt law went into effect, traffic fatalities have gone up.  Not down.

Now, I doubt that the existence of a seat belt law made fatalities go up.  I suspect that things such as an increased number of drivers on the road, and perhaps more miles driven, may have an impact on that.  But I think it’s rather hard to argue that the existing seat belt law has made North Dakotans any safer.  And I doubt that making seat belt enforcement more draconian, and essentially giving law enforcement officers a blank check to pull over anyone with the flimsy excuse of “I thought he/she wasn’t wearing a seat belt,” is going to improve the situation at all.

There’s no need for this law, and I don’t think our political leaders should be in the habit of legislating just for the sake of legislating.