crash fatalities without seatbelts Tag Archives

Published on: March 4, 2025

Enforcement is Key to Preventing Auto Accident Wrongful Deaths

Enforcement of traffic laws, including those against drunk driving and speeding, need to be a major part of any auto accident prevention program by state and federal governments. These are the types of traffic law violations which lead to very serious car accidents resulting in catastrophic personal injuries and wrongful deaths.

The role that traffic enforcement can play in accident prevention tends to be a controversial topic. However, a recent piece in The Atlantic calls for increasing traffic enforcement in order to help reduce the number of people involved in serious auto accidents. The article refers to experiments in other states that have chosen to decrease traffic enforcement, consequently leading to an increase in the number of car accidents and accident – related catastrophic personal injuries and wrongful deaths in these states.

Many car accident prevention programs these days focus heavily on the role of road design in preventing car accidents. However, there are many types of accidents that are not impacted or hindered by optimum road design. For example, a large part of the spike in auto accident wrongful deaths in recent years is linked to the increase in the number of car accidents occurring at night. Many of these auto accidents are speeding- related car accidents or drunk driving auto accidents that have very little to do with road design. These accidents are often connected to low levels of traffic enforcement. Simply put, if these speeding drivers and drunk motorists are fined for violations and taken off the streets, we are more likely to see a decline in car accident numbers.

Published on: November 12, 2020

Requiring Seat Belts for All will Reduce Traffic Accident Deaths in Atlanta

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is kick-starting its annual seat belt enforcement campaign, even as a bill that would require all occupants of a car in Georgia to be buckled in remains pending.

The current bill pending in the Senate would require that all occupants of a vehicle, including any adults in the back seat, remain buckled while the car is in motion. This bill was introduced in 2019, and has a lot of support from lawmakers who believe that it is important for all occupants in a car to receive equal protection against injuries and the possible risk of death in an accident. If this bill is ultimately be passed and becomes law, Georgia will join the list of states that now require all motorists and passengers to be buckled in while driving, without exception.

Currently, the law in Georgia requires only front seat passengers to wear seat belts. The law applies only to minor back seat passengers below the age of 17. Adult passengers in the back seat are exempt from the law.

Published on: January 17, 2011

Low Seatbelt Use Leads to Increase In Auto Accident Police Fatalities

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

In many of the serious auto accidents that Atlanta car accident lawyers come across, seatbelt use was the only thing preventing devastating injuries or death. However, there is one category of drivers that is most aware of the importance of wearing seatbelts to avoid accidents, but neglect to wear seatbelts anyway. According to a new study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, at least 42% of police officers, who were killed in auto accidents over the past 28 years, were not wearing seat belts at the time.

The NHTSA study analyzed 733 fatal police auto accidents from 1980 through 2008, and found that more than 42% of the officers during these auto accidents were not wearing seat belts. Across the country, there have been concerns about low seatbelt usage rates among police officers. In Georgia too, we have a similar situation, and to a lay person, it can be quite perplexing. After all, officers don’t neglect to pull a motorist over when they find seatbelt violations, and it seems odd that they don’t obey laws they help enforce.

Many police departments are aware of this low seatbelt usage rate, and condone it because wearing seat belts can interfere with certain aspects of a police officer’s responsibilities. While officers are expected to wear seat belts during a patrol or when they are responding to a scene of a crime, they may begin unbuckling when the pursuit is winding down, or when there is a need for them to get out of the car and pursue a suspect.