If you’ve been involved in an automobile accident, you may wonder about the legal consequences if you were not wearing a seat belt, and whether you could be considered negligent for this reason alone. This can be an extremely complex issue, depending somewhat on what state you currently reside in. While most all states have adopted legislation which requires drivers and front seat passengers to wear seat belts, the states differ widely in the specific consequences attached to a personal injury case in which the plaintiff was found to have not been wearing their safety belt. While some states don’t consider nonuse of a seatbelt to be relevant in any way at all when determining the plaintiff’s potential recovery, other state courts do consider lack of a safety belt to be relevant.
Causation or Plaintiff Misconduct
If your particular state operates under the causation paradigm, you would not be allowed to recover any damages which resulted from your failure to wear a seatbelt. Some states will require you to prove that your injuries would have resulted just the same whether you had been wearing a seat belt or not, while others will make it the defendant’s job to prove that if you had been wearing your seat belt you would not have suffered injuries. Unfortunately, this issue can be very difficult to prove one way or another. States which operate under the plaintiff misconduct paradigm will focus more directly on your failure to snap your seat belt, which becomes the primary focus for calculating your specific damages. The plaintiff misconduct theory, however does require extremely complicated fact finding in the determination of whether you were properly wearing your seat belt, and the scope of the results of that failure.
No Clear Cut Method of Determining Negligence
Unfortunately, most courts currently have no clear cut rules regarding whether you can be held accountable in a personal injury claim for failure to wear a seat belt. Many courts will take into account your failure to wear your seat belt so far as to reduce your monetary recovery amounts for only the injuries which directly resulted from that failure. The failure to wear your seat belt will not, however affect your other claims for injury and damages. A few states refuse to consider the seat belt issue at all when awarding damages, such as the Massachusetts law which states that “failure to wear a properly fastened seat belt shall not be considered as contributory negligence or used as evidence in any civil action.”
Seat Belt Defense
Ford and Chrysler companies first offered lap belts in automobiles in 1955, however it was not until 1968 that the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards required that all auto makers install lap belts for all occupants of the vehicle as well as shoulder harnesses for the driver and front seat passenger. State and federal requirements soon followed in an attempt to encourage the use of safety belts. Initially, the seat belt defense was used to completely preclude victims of auto accidents from receiving any settlement for injuries which theoretically would have been prevented through the use of a safety belt. Although some jurisdictions ran with this defense, others rejected it out of hand under the belief that since the plaintiff’s failure to wear a seat belt was not the cause of the accident, failure to wear a seat belt should not preclude recovery.
The use or non-use of a seat belt adds an entire new complex level to personal injury cases, and if it has become an issue in your particular case you must hire an experienced personal injury attorney who can determine whether the fact you weren’t buckled up will affect your settlement.