Before getting behind the wheel Tuesday, remember that you now must wear your seat belt or risk getting pulled over and handed a ticket.
Starting Tuesday, Florida will be considered a so-called “primary” enforcement state, meaning that law enforcement can stop a motorist and issue a ticket by just spotting a driver without a belt.
Florida Highway Patrol officials maintain the amendment to Florida’s seat-belt law, which has been around since 1986, will compel more drivers and passengers to buckle up — and in doing so, save lives.
“What we’re trying to do is change behavioral patterns for motorists so they will buckle up,” said FHP Lt. Tim Frith said from Tallahassee. “We applaud the legislative action because it’s going to save lives>”
Here are a few things to think about as you drive off to work or play today:
The big change involves enforcement. Drivers have been responsible for wearing seat belts for years. But before today law enforcement officers had to stop drivers for another infraction, such as speeding or following to close behind another vehicle, before handing them a citation for not wearing a seat belt.
Now if they spot a driver not wearing a belt, that’s all they need to pull the car over. Good rule of thumb: Everyone in the car should wear seat belts. Young children need child restraints or booster seats. Kids under age 18 and right-side front passengers must wear the belts too.
If you don’t buckle up to be safe, at least do it to save some cash. The non-moving violation won’t put points on your license. But one legislative analysis indicated that the tickets and added court costs and fees could total $93 to $100.
“Most counties that you look at are going to be at the $100 mark, but it’s going to vary,” Frith said.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration anticipates that 124 lives will be saved in Florida each year thanks to the toughening of the seat belt law. In 2007, 1,878 people died in traffic accidents on Florida’s roads. That total was down from prior years, when the count exceeded 2,000 deaths.
According to an Orlando Sentinel analysis, 57 percent of people killed on Florida’s highways during the past few years did not wear their belts, while about 39 percent killed in wrecks did wear the belts. In the remaining 4 percent of fatal accidents, it wasn’t clear if those killed were wearing seat belts.
In Central Florida counties last year, roughly 65 percent of the 225 people killed in traffic accidents did not have seat belts on.
NHTSA figures show that Floridians wear seat belts nearly 82 percent of the time, which is slightly lower than national average of 83 percent. But consider that less than a decade ago — in 2001 — seat belt compliance among Floridians was less than 70 percent