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Legislation would make not wearing a seat belt a primary offence
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Addisyn Benzel was riding in the cargo area of a Chevy Equinox earlier this year when the vehicle was hit head-on on a state route in Columbiana County.
The 11-year-old from Minerva and five other passengers weren’t wearing seat belts, and she and two others were killed.
On Tuesday, her parents, Tim and Theresa Benzel, stood before a lawmaker panel at the Statehouse urging members to allow law-enforcement to pull over and cite drivers when children are not properly secured in their vehicles.
“There were nine passengers in a vehicle that was only equipped with five seat-belt restraints,” Theresa Benzel said of the accident that claimed the life of her daughter.
She added later: “Under current Ohio law, safety officials observing this without a primary offense to impose are unable to intervene and potentially save lives. Allowing this provision to become a primary offense would give law enforcement the opportunity to pull over vehicles where children are clearly unrestrained and hopefully prevent a tragedy such as our family has been through.”
The Benzels were among the proponents of Senate Bill 302 who testified before the Ohio Senate’s Transportation Committee on Tuesday.
SB 302 would allow law enforcement to cite drivers who allow youngsters to sit in cargo areas or other spaces in vehicles without seat belts, car seats or other appropriate restraints.
The infraction currently is a secondary offense, meaning drivers must be breaking another specified traffic law in order for law enforcement to stop them and issue citations on Ohio roadways.
The bill has the support of the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office, Youngstown and Canfield police departments, the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio and the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association.
“This is a bill that would allow law enforcement to take preventative action instead of reactive action in the case of an unrestrained child,” Youngstown Police Lt. William Ross told lawmakers Tuesday. He added later, “Remember that properly restraining a child in an automobile is the one decision that a parent can make before a crash occurs that will give a child a 54 percent chance of surviving an otherwise fatal car crash.”