One of the easiest ways to make driving safer is by wearing your seat belt. Wisconsin enacted mandatory usage of seat belts in 1987. Since that law was enacted, there has been an increase in usage but it still falls short of 100%. During the most recent surveys the usage is approximately 83%. Law enforcement’s goal is to have 100% compliance which could save countless lives. Effective June 30, 2009, Wisconsin has what is known as a primary enforcement seat belt law. A primary enforcement seat belt law allows law enforcement to stop and ticket a driver for not wearing a seat belt, just like any other routine traffic violation. Prior to this update, officers were required to have another reason to stop a motorist to be able to enforce the seat belt law.
Violation of the Wisconsin seat belt law carries a fine of $10 and 0 points.
347.48 (2m) Wisconsin State Statue States: (a) In this subsection, “properly restrained” means wearing a safety belt approved by the department under sub. (2) and fastened in a manner prescribed by the manufacturer of the safety belt which permits the safety belt to act as a body restraint. (b) If a motor vehicle is required to be equipped with safety belts in this state, no person may operate that motor vehicle unless the person is properly restrained in a safety belt. Captain Trace Frost of the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office asks all motorists to wear their seat belts. Frost added “Over the years I have seen people seriously injured or killed in crashes where if they had been wearing their seat belt, the injuries and deaths could have been avoided”.
