ALBANY — Everyone riding in a vehicle might have to start wearing their seat belt in New York.
As part of the 2018-2019 state budget plan, Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants seat belt laws to be expanded to include all passengers in the vehicle.
As part of a public safety initiative, the budget proposes legislation "to require all back seat passengers to wear seat belts."
The state’s current law requires that vehicle drivers and front-passenger seat riders wear a seatbelt.
Anyone under 16-years-old is also required to buckle up.
The legislation would expand the seat belt laws to also include backseat passengers who are over age 16.
The budget also proposed outlawing hands-free phone use by junior permit and junior license holders and requiring children under 8-years-old to be properly secured in necessary car seats when riding in a school car or van.
Seat belts help to absorb some of the impact of after a vehicle crash, they can help to keep passengers in their seats and can help to dramatically reduce the chances of death and or serious injuries when worn correctly, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
Around 21 percent of highway deaths in New York happen to people who were not wearing their seat belts, according to the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee.
Seat belt use was found to be a greater factor in vehicle-accident deaths than alcohol or excessive speed, the state said.
Mandatory seat belt laws for drivers and front-seat passengers first came into effect in 1985 in New York. It was the first state to enact a seatbelt law.
Under the current law, drivers can be issued ticket and fined $50 for not wearing their seat belts and fined $100 if someone under age 16 is not buckled in safely.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seat belts reduce serious crash-related injuries and death by half.
Over 22,000 vehicle occupants were killed in traffic crashes nationally in 2015.
More than half of teens and adults under age 44 who were killed were not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, the agency said.
Last year, the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee announced that its own survey found 94 percent of New York drivers said they wear their seat belts.
