A new law will require all occupants of a vehicle in New Jersey to buckle up. As a New Jersey auto accident lawyer, I am pleased with the law which is the latest one in a series designed to protect New Jersey motorists in the event of accidents. However, it would have been even more encouraging if the law had been signed in with primary enforcement. Currently, the bill comes with secondary enforcement, which means that police must first stop the vehicle for another offense, before handing out a ticket for failure to buckle up.

Rear seat passengers are at a grave risk of injury not just to themselves, but also other passengers in the event of accidents. The impact of an accident can throw back seat passengers against the other occupants of the vehicle, causing them serious injuries, not to mention the injuries to the rear seat passenger themselves.

As a New Jersey car accident lawyer, I would like to see buckling up become a habit for all motor vehicle occupants. You can’t overestimate the kind of protection being in a properly fitted seatbelt can offer during an accident. Along with airbags, seatbelts have been responsible for saving thousand of lives over the years. However, back seat passengers have traditionally had a much lower rate of buckling up than drivers or front seat passengers. This places them at a higher risk of injuries.  Hopefully, this new law will help make buckling up in the backseat as common and widespread as wearing seatbelts in the front seat.