New Back Seat Seat Belt Laws Coming to New York?

I remember growing up in the 70s and sitting in the front seat of a car without wearing a seat belt. I smacked my face off the windshield once or twice when the person driving either hit a curb, or once, another vehicle.

As the years went on and automobile crash tests were being conducted, research proved that we should be wearing our seat belts. When I first started driving you were not required by law to wear a seat belt.

A girl I was dating in high school used to wear her seat belt all the time and that turned out to be a good thing. She was driving on an icy road one morning on her way to college and ended up in a head-on collision.The first responders said she would have been severely injured if she wasn't wearing her seatbelt. From that point on I started wearing mine when I was driving.

Sometime after that, Pennsylvania, which is where I grew up, passed their law requiring people to wear seat belts when traveling in the front seat of cars. While all my friends were struggling to remember to buckle up when they got in the car, I was already used to it at that point. Nowadays, even riding in the backseat of a car, if I don't have a seat belt on, I feel strange.

Today I found a story on WBNG's website that states the AAA and the Medical Society of the State of New York are pushing to have a new law passed that would require all passengers to wear seat belts when riding in the back seat.

According to the report, the current law states that all passengers 16 and under must have a seat belt on when riding in the back seat of a vehicle. Supporters of the bill site statistics that prove you are more likely to avoid serious injuries if buckled up regardless of what seat you are sitting in.