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SEAT BELTS. . .

SEAT BELTS: HOW THE LAW TREATS ACCIDENT VICTIMS WHO ARE NOT

BUCKLED UP

If you are the victim of an automobile accident and you are someone who was not negligent in causing the automobile accident, you may have a claim against the negligent driver and their insurance company. If your claim is not settled with the insurance company, then sometimes a lawsuit will be filed and a jury will get to decide the value of your personal injury automobile accident case. If you get to the point of a jury trial in your personal injury case, then the issue may arise as to whether or not you were wearing your seat belt. Generally speaking, the law in the state of Kansas provides that the fact of whether or not you were wearing your seat belt immediately prior to an automobile accident is not admissible into evidence, and therefore, the parties will not be able to discuss the fact that you were or were not wearing a seat belt in front of the jury or make any arguments to the jury about that issue. The reason that this law is in place is to protect the victims of automobile accidents from the negligence of the person that caused the automobile accident, or more specifically, to prevent the negligent party that caused the accident from benefiting when the victim is not wearing a seat belt and the fact that the victim did not wear a seat belt had nothing to do with the cause of the automobile accident. While it is true that, in many accidents, individuals are more severely injured when they are not wearing their seat belt, the courts and legislature have decided that the person who caused an accident should not be able to cause a reduction in the value of a person's claim for injuries where the wearing of a seat belt had nothing to do with the cause of the accident.

Of course, there are other legal ramifications for not wearing a seat belt in your vehicle. Obviously, the laws in the state of Kansas require a person to wear a seat belt while driving a vehicle or a front seat passenger, and therefore, you may be ticketed in an accident where it is established that you did not wear a seat belt, even though you were an injured individual. This ticket will result in your paying a fine and court costs and does not result in incarceration. However, the fact that you received a ticket for not wearing a seat belt is also not admissible in the personal injury claim that you may have against the person that caused your automobile accident.

Another legal ramification for not wearing your seat belt would be if your claim is that the safety devices on the vehicle you were riding in or driving did not properly function. For example, if your allegation is that your air bag failed to deploy and as a result of that failure of the air bag to deploy you suffered a more serious injury in an accident and you were trying to make a claim against the automobile manufacturer for this defective safety device, more likely than not, the fact that you weren't wearing your seat belt will be admitted into evidence since you are claiming a safety defect in the vehicle you were riding in. If you do get into this situation where your air bag is not deployed or you feel like there is a safety defect that caused you injury in an accident, you do need to get to a lawyer immediately to deal with this issue, along with the issue of how your safety belt did or did not work in this accident.

When you are trying to make a claim against an insurance company for the negligence of their insured and they make a claim that you were not wearing your seat belt, and therefore, you were injured more severely than you should have been, you need to seek the advice of an attorney immediately. This claim by an insurance company should be an indication to you that this insurance company is not going to negotiate with you in a reasonable fashion since the claim that you didn't wear a seat belt cannot be used against you in a court of law. If you were injured in an automobile accident and that accident was not your fault, at the very least, you should get a free, no obligation consultation with an attorney to see just exactly how these types of issues will affect the value of your personal injury claim and the possibility that you might be able to settle this claim without going to trial.

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