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News Brief

May 6, 2019Jefferson City, MO |  By: Josh Dillman

Senate bill seeking to allow evidence for not wearing seatbelt

A Missouri Senate bill sponsored by 12th District Senator Dan Hegeman regarding seatbelts is headed for the Governor's desk. Hegeman, a Republican from Cosby, says the bill seeks to allow evidence of failure to wear a seatbelt to prove comparative negligence or to mitigate damages in legal cases.

"The jury's award could be adjusted up or down one percent because they may or may not have been using a seatbelt.  And if it was found to be contributory or part of the reason why people were injured, then they could be moved up.  Now this bill strictly dealt with just product liability dealing with the cars and the manufacturers and the way that their safety systems work.  But we basically now are saying let's not stick with the one percent arbitrary up and down usage figure for making awards on wearing seatbelts, but let's leave the jury to decide how much they want to allocate for the non-usage or usage of the seatbelt."

Hegeman adds he wants everyone to wear their seatbelt.

"And I think it's just not right that we can't take that into consideration when juries are awarding damages associated with accidents like this.  If people chose not to wear their seatbelts, that should be taken into consideration more than one percent adjusting up or down.  So that's what the bill did.  It just dealt with product liability.  These safety systems in cars are great and wonderful, but they are designed around one central figure, and that's the use of seatbelts.  Airbags and all that other stuff is all designed around people first and formost using their seatbelts.  We're just trying to encourage that and allow it to be taken into consideration."

Should Governor Parson sign the bill, it would become effective January 1, 2020.