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| Contact |
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Carla Levinski
Phone Number: 503 986-4199
FAX: 503 986-3143
ODOT - Transportation Safety Division
235 Union Street NE
Salem, OR 97301-1054
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| Movie - Wear Safety Belts |
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Safety belts and child safety seats save lives. Oregon Department of Transportation's Safety Division offers tips for using safety belts and child safety seats properly. No excuses - it's the Way to Go!
Click here to watch this 3-minute movie explaining Oregon's safety belt and child seat laws.
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Download the looping version of the video by clicking on the following link, select "Save," and choose a folder on your computer for the file location: Tradeshow Video (11 MB)
(Note: This file requires Adobe Flash Player.)
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| Goals, Issues and Statistics |
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| Program Overview |
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Promote correct and consistent use of safety belts, child safety seats and other occupant restraint devices through:
- Public information and education
- Overtime and training for law enforcement
- Child passenger safety technician training
- Child safety seat subsidy programs
- Legislative support
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| Safety Belt & Child Seat Laws |
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The following are general descriptions of Oregon's safety belt and child restraint laws. Specific wording of statutory requirements can be found at ORS 811.210 - 811.225. (Note: You will have to scroll down to the appropriate statute number to locate the actual full text).
ADULT BELT LAW
Oregon law requires that all motor vehicle operators and passengers be properly secured with a safety belt or safety harness, unless all safety-belt equipped seating positions are occupied by other persons. This applies to passenger cars, pick up trucks, motorhomes, and fee-based people transport carrying fifteen or fewer persons. Limited exemptions are allowed under ORS 811.215. Vehicle owners are required to maintain belt systems in working order.
CHILD RESTRAINT LAW
Child passengers must be restrained in approved child safety seats until they weigh forty pounds or reach the upper weight limit for the carseat in use. Infants must ride rear-facing until they reach both one year of age AND twenty pounds.
BOOSTER SEAT LAW
Children over forty pounds or who have reached the upper weight limit for their forward-facing carseat must use boosters to 4'9" tall or age eight and the adult belt fits correctly.
CHANGE TO CHILD SEAT LAW effective January 2012: Current law requires children to move from a child seat to a booster after forty pounds. House Bill 3590 signed by Governor 6/9/2011 will allow continued use of child seats up to the highest weight limit allowed by the seat manufacturer, as an alternative to boosters, for children over forty pounds but under age eight or less than 4'9" tall.
NATIONAL "BEST PRACTICE" RECOMMENDATIONS
Oregon child seat laws generally reflect USDOT National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recommendations based upon accepted nationwide research studies. However, NHTSA offers the following three additional recommendations which are not currently included in Oregon law: 1) infants should ride rear-facing in their car seat until they reach the upper height or weight limit recommended by the manufacturer of the seat in use (provides greater head protection particularly in a side-impact crash), 2) toddlers should ride in car seats with a harness to upper weight limit of seat before transitioning to a booster, and 3) children under age thirteen should ride in the back seat (reduces the risk of crash injury by 37% for this age group).
NEW CARSEAT RECOMMENDATIONS
On March 21, 2011 new "best practice" recommendations for child seat safety announced from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAPA) advise keeping infants rear-facing to at least two years old. Click for the latest AAPA carseat recommendations.
BELT OR BOOSTER?
Belt fit can vary greatly from one vehicle to another and one child to another. If your child meets Oregon's legal requirements for moving from a booster seat to safety belt but you still have doubts about your whether your child fits in the belt in your particular vehicle, then the following simple test can help. Place your child in the vehicle without a booster seat and then ask these questions. Until you can answer YES to all of the questions, your child should stay in a booster seat.
1. Can the child sit all the way back against the vehicle seat?
2. Do the child's knees bend comfortably at the edge of the seat?
3. Does the shoulder belt cross the shoulder between the neck and arm?
4. Is the lap belt as low as possible, touching the thighs?
5. Can the child stay comfortably seated like this for the whole trip?
MOTOR HOMES
Motor homes are considered passenger vehicles under Oregon law and as such, adult belt and child seat requirements apply also to motor homes --- but only to forward-facing vehicle seating positions (those meeting federal safety standards for seat belt anchorages). Therefore, occupants should utilize all forward-facing belted positions before using side or rear-facing positions.
COMMERCIAL VEHICLES
Oregon's safety belt law requires occupants of privately-owned commercial vehicles transporting 15 or fewer persons to use safety restraints including occupants of shuttles, taxis, limousines and vans. Among these types of vehicles, taxi cab drivers are the only occupants excepted from this rule. Effective January 1st, 2008, the previous exemption for commercial vehicles "designed or used primarily for transportation of property" is removed.
ATVS
Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is the implementing agency for laws and rules relating to use of restraints on ATVs.
Please visit their website at : http://www.oregon.gov/OPRD/ATV/index.shtml
MEDICAL EXEMPTIONS
ORS 811.220 The Director of Transportation shall issue a certificate of exemption under ORS 811.215 for any person whose behalf a statement signed by a physician is presented to the Department of Transportation. For a physician's statement to qualify under this section, the physician giving the statement must set forth reasons in the statement why the use of a child safety seat system, or safety belt or safety harness by the person would be impractical or harmful to the person by reason of physician condition, medical problem or body size.
A safety restraint exemption cannot be issued for commercial drivers per Federal Code 392-16.
Faxes can not be accepted. Please send in ORIGINAL copies only.
Safety Belt Medical Exemption Form
For more information, please contact Melody McGee, Seatbelt Medical Exemption Coordinator:
(503) 986-3590
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| Partner Links |
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Safety Belt Overtime Enforcement Grants:
Oregon Association Chiefs of Police: (503) 315-1411
Oregon State Sheriffs Association: (503) 364-4204
Oregon State Police Patrol Services Division: (503) 378-3725
Child Passenger Safety Training, Information & Referral, Seat Distribution Programs:
ACTS Oregon Child Safety Seat Resource Center
(503) 643-5620 (Portland Area)
(877) 793-2608
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Injury Prevention Data & Resources, Contacts for Local Safe Kids Chapters:
OREGON SAFE KIDS/Oregon Department of Human Services, Injury & Violence Prevention:
(971) 673-1001
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| Other Links |
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Child passenger safety research, charts, illustrations, on-screen video:
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
www.research.chop.edu/programs/carseat
Vehicle safety ratings, airbags, rollover protection, more:
USDOT National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety & Highway Loss Data Institute
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| Help with Child Seats |
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Child Passenger Safety Training, Information & Referral, Seat Distribution Programs:
ACTS Oregon Child Safety Seat Resource Center
(503) 643-5620 (Portland Area)
(877) 793-2608
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| Click It or Ticket-Enforcement |
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Oregon’s safety belt overtime enforcement program is a statewide selective traffic enforcement program (STEP) that seeks to reduce the number of motor vehicle-related deaths and injuries by increasing public awareness of laws regarding the three most prevalent factors contributing to traffic crash injuries: safety restraint use, speed, and impaired drivers. The “Three Flags Campaign”, as initiated, derived its name from a demonstration effort between Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, which lasted from 1993-2004. In 1999, the Oregon State Sheriffs Association, Oregon Association Chiefs of Police and Oregon State Police Headquarters assumed daily grant management and active promotion of the program. Today, while ODOT’s Transportation Safety Division continues to coordinate a federally funded overtime “STEP” in cooperation with these entities, most Oregon law enforcement agencies enforce safety belt laws year-round as a matter of routine.
Over one hundred city, county and state police agencies will utilize safety belt overtime during three two-week “blitz” periods this year. Prior to each "blitz", training and instructional materials are provided to participating agencies through ODOT's Transportation Safety Division. Officers are encouraged to acquire advanced specialized training in correct use of child safety systems, and to nurture community awareness of traffic safety issues generally. Participating agencies conduct local belt use surveys and public awareness/media activities during the weeks prior to and following each blitz. Observed belt use rates, number of enforcement contacts, and public information activities reported by each agency measure Campaign success.
Statewide crash fatality and injury rates have dropped 61% and 37% respectively since passage of the adult belt law in 1990. The law, combined with active enforcement, has resulted in 2011 Oregon belt use rates of 97% (front seat) and 96% (all occupants), placing Oregon among the top three belt-use states in the U.S. (Hawaii and Washington state both recorded a use rate of 97.6%.) This compares to a belt use average rate of 85% among all states.
During the 2010-11 grant year, $840,680 in federal safety belt overtime expenditure brought 53,710 total enforcement contacts and paid officers to assist at child seat checks and other local educational events. Total overtime contacts were as follows: 14,959 safety belt, 860 child seat, 9,404 speeding, 387 DUII, 3,644 suspensions, 468 felonies, and 23,989 other violations. To put these efforts and expenditures into perspective, consider that safety belts are 45-65% effective in preventing fatalities and that the average combined societal costs of one traffic death were estimated to be $1,090,000 (National Safety Council, 2002).
Program Overview - Carla Levinski, ODOT Transportation Safety Division
2012 Schedule of Events
May 2012 Presspoints
100 Car Belt Use Survey (Form)
For more information on this Campaign, contact Carla Levinski, ODOT Occupant Protection Program Manager at (503)986-4199.
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| Child Passenger Safety Week |
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Get INVOLVED
During the week of September 16 to 22, 2012, health, injury prevention, law enforcement and traffic safety advocates throughout Oregon will provide an enhanced variety of free educational opportunities for people to learn about Oregon safety belt laws and proper use of child safety and booster seats. Watch for more information regarding these events to be posted in August 2012.
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