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Starting on Monday, more than 50 Idaho law enforcement agencies will launch a 14-day crackdown on seat belt usage, a push that will extend through the Memorial Day weekend. According to the Idaho Transportation Department, 105 Idahoans who weren’t wearing their seat belts were killed last year in crashes on the state’s roads. Idaho law requires restraints - seat belts for adults, child safety seats for young children - for all drivers and passengers in vehicles. Fines for violating Idaho’s safety restraint laws range from $10 to $69.
“Wearing your seat belt costs nothing and yet it’s the single most effective traffic safety device ever invented,” said Mary Hunter, ITD highway safety manager. “Failing to wear a seat belt puts you at risk for serious injury or death. Two-thirds of motor vehicle occupants killed in Idaho traffic crashes last year were unbelted. According to seat belt effectiveness studies by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), half of these victims could be alive today had they simply buckled up.”
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slfisher on May 15 at 10:28 p.m.
It’s unfortunate that the Idaho Legislature didn’t make this a primary stop offense, which would have gotten us more federal funding.
Sadbuttrue on May 16 at 6:16 p.m.
I hope you are being sarcastic about more federal funding.
Do we otherwise have so little crime in Idaho that we need to make a gigantic law-enforcement flourish to crack down on seatbelt use?
Maybe we can make it a misdemeanor so that we can put them in jail for ten days, like we do “pedestrians under the influence,” “driving with an expired drivers license,” “unauthorized copying of a home videotape,” and “tearing the label off mattresses and pillows.”
You might almost think that the police are supportive of a brand new multi-million dollar jail…..
slfisher on May 17 at 6:55 a.m.
no, I’m not being sarcastic. I don’t remember where I read it or I’d put in a cite. It’s annoying that Idaho ends up leaving money on the table for safety issues that could result in more money for us if we made minor changes to our existing laws. similarly, there’s a tiny change to the car seat laws that, if we made, would result in money for hundreds of car seats for needy families, but we don’t make it.
Sisyphus on May 18 at 12:24 p.m.
What would the federal funding for seat belts go to, Sharon? Personally I don’t mind a federal mandate if it legislates common sense and is somewhat unobtrusive. But expanding government intrusion to such a large degree, by allowing a cop to pull you over just cause he thinks you’re not belted, shouldn’t be taken lightly. It can and will lead to abuses like pretext searches.
A friend of mine was pulled over the other day and the cop made a huge deal about him wearing his seat belt. The cop was very apologetic in explaining that the belt unlatched wasn’t the reason he pulled him over yet the actual reason was never identified. My friend just happened to unlatch his belt after he was stopped and is the most religious person I know about using a seat belt. a lesson learned the hard way. After delivering the sternly worded safety lecture, the cop sped away ON HIS MOTORCYCLE.
Several morals to this story. 1) safety on the roadways can be relative and sometimes people should receive the harsh lesson of a Darwin Award instead of making it the government’s responsibility to keep them safe 2) cops have ample reasons to make stops as it is 3) while cops have a tough job which most acquit with the utmost professionalism, they can be prone to subjective authoritarianism, 4) cops ain’t always the sharpest tools in the shed.
Lisa on May 20 at 9:03 p.m.
Sis…have to disagree with you on this one. Have you ever seen the results of idiotic parents that allowed their kids to not use seatbealts, like kids riding on mom or dad’s lap, kids bouncing around the backseat just before the car wreck?. If it takes “Heavy Handed” Laws for the Police to save the life of one child then I’m all for it.
slfisher on May 23 at 6:20 a.m.
Sisyphus, do you really think that if cops want to pull someone over now, they can’t? My former husband has many stories of being pulled over for ‘driving while ponytailed.’