Legislative Update

The Senate Transportation Committee has passed two pieces of legislation this week. This means that these pieces of legislation now go to the full Senate for a vote which may happen next week. S1094 is titled, Child Safety Seat - No Exceptions. Its progress can be tracked at http://www3.state.id.us/oasis/S1094.html. This piece of legislation deletes the nursing baby exemption that allows children to be unrestrained in a moving vehicle so the parent can attend to their physiological needs.

The other piece of legislation is S1135 which increases the seat belt fine from $10 to $25. Its progress can be tracked at http://www3.state.id.us/oasis/S1135.html. The $25 fine would be distributed as follows: $5 is fixed and goes to various funds by Statute, $10 would to go to the Catastrophic Health Cost Care Fund (an increase from the current $5 contribution), and $10 would go to the Idaho Transportation Department to support seat belt and child passenger safety programs. This also eliminates the restriction of enforcement to vehicles less than 8,000 gross vehicle weight which would be consistent with our neighboring states of Washington, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana.

Both pieces of legislation would make Idaho's laws more effective. We believe they would also allow Idaho to qualify for Section 405 funding totaling $947,000 per year to go to seat belt and child passenger safety programs.

This is just the first step. The bills must be passed by the Senate and then go to the House Transportation Committee. If passed there, they are voted on by the full House. If passed, they must be signed into law by the Governor, or at least not vetoed. We will keep you informed on their progress.

Thanks for all you are doing to continue your efforts to increase seat belt use in Idaho!