TOPEKA, Kan. (June 27, 2017) – AAA Kansas wants to remind motorists caught not buckling their seat belts in the state that they will need to dig deeper into their wallets, starting July 1, 2017. Traffic fines for seatbelt violations rise from $10 to $30 that day, thanks to a new law passed by the Kansas legislature and signed into law in May by Governor Brownback.

The law, passed as Senate Bill 89 (SB 89), triples the fine for a person 18 years and older who is not wearing a seat belt in a passenger car when that car is in motion. The new law directs $20 from each $30 seatbelt violation fine to the Seat Belt Safety Fund, which will be administered by the Secretary of Transportation and fund an expansion of the student-driven Seatbelts Are For Everyone (SAFE) program, making it available to every high school in Kansas.

“Our first preference is for everyone to simply wear their seatbelts whenever they are in a moving vehicle; seatbelts are proven to help limit injuries and deaths in crashes,” said AAA Kansas spokesman Shawn Steward.

“AAA Kansas strongly supports this new law, in hopes that the higher fines will provide more of a deterrent to not wearing seatbelts,” Steward said. “An additional positive is that the law assures seatbelt education will be available to Kansas high schoolers through the effective SAFE program in the years ahead, funded through voluntary contributions from adults who choose to violate the seatbelt usage law.”

The positive impact of safety belt usage is significant. In 2016 in Kansas, 435 people died in motor vehicle crashes, making it one of the top ten causes of unintentional death in Kansas and the number one killer of teens. According to the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT), more than seven out of 10 (71 percent), on average, of all people killed or seriously injured in Kansas crashes are unrestrained.

Seatbelt Quick Facts

• Seat belt use continued to be higher in the States in which vehicle occupants can be pulled over solely for not using seat belts (“primary law States”) as compared with the States with weaker enforcement laws (“secondary law States”) or without seat belt laws. Kansas is a primary seatbelt law state. (Source: NHTSA)
• Nationally, seat belt use in 2016 reached 90.1 percent, up from 88.5 percent in 2015 (Source: NHTSA)
• As of 2016, Kansas had an 87% seat belt usage rate. (Source: KTSRO)
• Women are more likely to be belted than men.
• Trucks, which account for about one in five vehicles observed, produce a substantially lower belt use rate (75%) than other vehicles (91%-93%).
• Male truck drivers are the lowest single category of belt users (73%).
• Rural counties tend to produce a lower belt use rate than urban counties.
• The more “local” the trip, the less likely occupants are to be buckled up.