US too slow to require rear seat belt warnings, suit says

WASHINGTON: A new lawsuit accuses the US government of being too slow to implement rules requiring that rear seat vehicle passengers be warned when they fail to buckle their seat belts.

Two non-profits said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has done nothing to implement legislation signed in July 2012 by former President Barack Obama that required the warnings.

The Centre for Auto Safety, and Kids and Cars Inc, said nearly 1,000 people are killed annually in the rear seats of passenger vehicles because they do not buckle up, and proper belt usage would lower the risk of death by 44 per cent.

“No one disagrees that seat belts save lives,” Jason Levine, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, said in a phone interview. “We don’t think the lives of people in the back seat are worth less than those in the front.”

The lawsuit seeks to require NHTSA, part of the Department of Transportation, to start the legislative process immediately and within one year implement a final rule, which was to have taken effect by October 2015.

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao was also named as a defendant. Her agency has not commented.

Earlier this month, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said 91 per cent of adults claim to always buckle up in the front seat, but just 72 per cent use seat belts in the back.

The IIHS said one-fourth of passengers believed sitting in the back was safer. — Reuters