Idaho’s seat belt, child restraint laws should be tougher, safety group finds
Idaho gets a middling rating for its safety laws from a new watchdog group study, which lauded the state for its efforts to restrict teen driving and distracted driving but gave it poor marks for seat belt and child restraint laws.
The findings are part of a report from Advocates for Highway & Auto Safety.
Idaho, along with 30 other states, “needs improvement because of gaps in Advocates’ recommended optimal laws,” the group found.
Among the problems in Idaho: Inadequate front and rear seat belt enforcement laws, meaning law enforcement cannot stop a vehicle simply because a seat belt is unbuckled. Idaho does require all vehicle occupants to wear a seat belt.
Nationwide, 47% of the 22,697 people killed in passenger vehicle riders were not wearing seat belts.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 94 lives were saved in Idaho in 2017 because of seat belt use. Had others been buckled in, though, it said 36 more lives could have been saved.
Idaho also got low marks for not requiring motorcycle riders of all ages to wear helmets. It’s one of 34 states without that requirement.
It’s one of 10 states that the group said don’t have optimal seat belt or motorcycle helmet laws.
The state also scored low in child safety enforcement. Idaho is one of 31 states without laws requiring infants and toddlers to sit in a rear facing child restraint system at least through age 2.
The state does require all children 6 or younger to be “properly restrained in an appropriate child safety restraint,” according to the Idaho Transportation Department.
The report also said Idaho lacks an adequate law requiring children who have outgrown the height and weight limit of a forward-facing safety seat to sit in a booster seat until the child is 8 years old and 57 inches tall. Thirty-four states have such laws.
Idaho does somewhat better, the group said, as children get older. In the decade between 2009 and 2018, 356 fatalities were caused by motor vehicle crashes involving drivers aged 15 to 20.
Idaho gets good ratings for some restrictions on young drivers, such as nighttime restrictions, but falters in the report because of what the group sees as inadequate laws involving restrictions on passengers.
In another safety rating, the state gets high marks for requiring an all-offender breath alcohol ignition interlock device linked to a vehicle ignition system.
Such systems aim to deter someone with a drunk driving conviction from operating a vehicle if their blood alcohol level is above the level set by state law.
The state gets middling marks for efforts to discourage distracted driving. While it bans text messaging during driving, the organization finds its efforts to restrict cell phone use as inadequate.
The report aims to promote the idea that as technology improves, so does the potential to prevent crashes that result in injuries and death.
Big challenges remain. Catherine Chase, the organization’s president, cited “critical safety issues that must be addressed,” including standards to measure driver assistance technology and autonomous vehicles, further measures to combat drug-impaired driving, better safety for rear seat passengers and more protection for pedestrians and bicycle riders.
This story was originally published January 27, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
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