Senate Bill No. 91
(By Senator Oliverio)
____________
[Introduced January 14, 2004; referred to the Committee on
Transportation; and then to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
____________
A BILL to amend and reenact §17C-15-43 and §17C-15-49
of the code
of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, all relating to motor
vehicle passenger safety seat belts; requiring all new and
used automobiles be equipped with safety seat belts for all
seating locations; and making offense of failure to wear a
safety belt a primary offense.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §17C-15-43 and §17C-15-49
of the code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 15. EQUIPMENT.
§17C-15-43. Vehicles to be equipped with safety belts.
No dealer in new or used automobiles shall may sell, lease,
transfer or trade, at retail, any passenger automobile which is
manufactured after the first day of January, one, one thousand nine hundred sixty-five, unless
such the vehicle is equipped with safety
seat belts for
the front seat, all seating locations. which Seat
belts
shall must meet the standards set and approved by the Society
of Automotive Engineers, Inc.
§17C-15-49. Operation of vehicles with safety belts; exception;
penalty; civil actions; educational program by
division of West Virginia state police.
(a) Effective the first day of September,
one thousand nine
hundred ninety-three two thousand four, a person may not operate a
passenger vehicle on a public street or highway of this state
unless the person
and any passenger in
the back seat under eighteen
years of age, and any passenger in the front seat any seating
position of
such the passenger vehicle is restrained by a safety
belt meeting applicable federal motor vehicle safety standards.
For the purposes of this section, the term "passenger vehicle"
means a motor vehicle which is designed for transporting ten
passengers or less, including the driver, except that
such the term
does not include a motorcycle, a trailer, or any motor vehicle
which is not required on the date of the enactment of this section
under a federal motor vehicle safety standard to be equipped with
a belt system. The provisions of this section
shall apply to all
passenger vehicles manufactured after the first day of January, one
thousand nine hundred sixty-seven, and being 1968 models and newer.
(b) The required use of safety belts as provided herein does not apply to a duly appointed or contracted rural mail carrier of
the United States postal service who is actually making mail
deliveries or to a passenger or operator with a physically
disabling condition whose physical disability would prevent
appropriate restraint in
such a safety belt if the condition is
duly certified by a physician who shall state the nature of the
disability as well as the reason
such the restraint is
inappropriate. The division of motor vehicles shall adopt rules,
in accordance with the provisions of chapter twenty-nine-a of this
code, to establish a method to certify the physical disability and
to require use of an alternative restraint system where feasible or
to waive the requirement for the use of any restraint system.
(c) Any person who violates the provisions of this section
shall be fined not more than twenty-five dollars. No court costs
or other fees
shall may be assessed for a violation of this
section.
Enforcement of this section shall be accomplished only as
a secondary action when a driver of a passenger vehicle has been
detained for probable cause of violating another section of this
code.
(d) A violation of this section is not admissible as evidence
of negligence or contributory negligence or comparative negligence
in any civil action or proceeding for damages, and
shall not be is
not admissible in mitigation of damages:
Provided, That the court
may, upon motion of the defendant, conduct an in camera hearing to determine whether an injured party's failure to wear a safety belt
was a proximate cause of the injuries complained of. Upon
such a
the finding by the court, the court may then, in a jury trial, by
special interrogatory to the jury, determine: (1) That the injured
party failed to wear a safety belt; and (2) that the failure to
wear the safety belt constituted a failure to mitigate damages.
The trier of fact may reduce the injured party's recovery for
medical damages by an amount not to exceed five percent thereof.
In the event the plaintiff stipulates to the reduction of five
percent of medical damages, the court shall make the calculations,
and the issue of mitigation of damages for failure to wear a safety
belt
shall may not be presented to the jury. In all cases, the
actual computation of the dollar amount reduction
shall must be
determined by the court.
(
e) Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the
contrary, no points may be entered on any driver's record
maintained by the division of motor vehicles as a result of a
violation of this section.
(f) Commencing the first day of July, one thousand nine
hundred ninety-three, the governor's highway safety program, in
cooperation with the division of public safety West Virginia state
police and any other state departments or agencies and with county
and municipal law-enforcement agencies, shall initiate and conduct
an educational program designed to encourage compliance with safety belt usage laws. This program shall must be focused on the
effectiveness of safety belts, the monetary savings and the
other
benefits to the public from usage the use of safety belts and the
requirements and penalties specified in this law.
(g) Nothing contained in this section shall may be construed
to abrogate or alter the provisions of section forty-six of this
article relating to the mandatory use of child passenger safety
devices
.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to change the offense of
failure to wear safety belts to a primary offense. The bill also
requires all vehicle occupants to wear seatbelts.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.