IIHS tool shows Virginia seat belt law change could save dozens of lives annually

RUCKERSVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - A new tool from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows that a change to Virginia’s seat belt law could reduce traffic deaths in the state.

Under current Virginia law, officers can only issue a seat belt ticket after stopping a driver for a separate violation. If the state moved to primary enforcement — allowing police to pull someone over solely for not wearing a seat belt — researchers estimate crash deaths for passengers over 13 could drop nearly 6%, or about 33 lives per year in Virginia.

Chuck Farmer, IIHS vice president of research, said states with secondary enforcement tend to have lower seat belt use rates.

“In some states, including Virginia, you can’t be pulled over by the police just because you’re not wearing a seatbelt. You can only be ticketed for a seatbelt violation if you’re pulled over for some other reason,” Farmer said. “And what we see is that in those states, seatbelt use rates tend to be lower.”

Farmer said the research on primary enforcement is consistent.

“When you change from secondary enforcement to primary enforcement, you always see increases in use rates,” Farmer said. “And the more you’re seeing people use belts, the fewer deaths you’re going to have, because it’s probably the most important thing you have in your vehicle to protect you in a crash.”

Farmer said the tool draws on years of research compiled from multiple organizations and studies.

“I just took all that information together and put it into this calculator so that you can make a nice, clear prediction of what’s going to happen should your state make that change,” Farmer said.

He said the tool is intended for a broad audience.

“It’s not just for state employees or people who are really interested in highway safety, but just in general, it’ll tell you basically what the law is in your state. And a lot of us don’t know what the laws are. And then just how much things could be improved if we made some very slight changes,” Farmer said.

Nationally, IIHS estimates stronger seat belt laws could have saved an estimated 277 people in 2023. A link to the IIHS can be found here.

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