Unbeknownst to many, Georgia is one of just 20 states that does not require all passengers in an automobile to wear a seatbelt. Currently only front seat passengers and minors are required by law to buckle up, but that may change in 2020.
The Senate Study Committee on Passenger Vehicle Seat Safety Belts studied the issue this Fall, eventually recommending that legislation enforcing seatbelt use be passed. That bipartisan committee, headed by influential state Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, found that public safety concerns outweighed any personal liberty arguments to be made against required seatbelt use.
“I realize there is a concern for some about personal liberty and freedom — being told what they can do and cannot do in a car,” Albers said in November. “However, if that person is not wearing their seat belt, and they are in a major crash, they are costing our society.”
More than 400 Georgians were killed in car accidents in 2017 while not wearing seatbelts, just under half of all passenger vehicle occupant fatalities for the year. Public safety experts say that number would be much lower if those passengers had been buckled in.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seat belts saved nearly 15,000 lives nationwide in 2017, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that if all passengers had been wearing their seatbelts an additional 2,549 lives could have been saved.
Law enforcement officials, including the Georgia State Patrol, are also pushing for stricter seatbelt legislation.
“All too often, we as state troopers investigate car crashes and we find that the people who are injured are sometimes killed in these accidents and that’s largely because they failed to use their seat belts,” said GSP Sgt. Craig Singletary.
“Nothing is going to keep you as safe as that seat belt.”
