Legislation recently introduced in the state Senate would repeal a prohibition on using seat-belt evidence in civil lawsuits.
Under current law, evidence that an individual was not wearing a seat belt cannot be introduced in a civil action to establish negligence or contributory negligence.
The Seat Belt Evidence Admissibility Act would allow evidence of a person’s use, non-use or improper use of a seatbelt to be introduced and considered in a civil case if the information is relevant to issues such as comparative or contributory negligence, causation, the extent of injuries and failure to mitigate damages. Juries then would have the ability to determine what weight the evidence deserves.
Failure to wear a seatbelt would not automatically make an injured person responsible for a crash or prevent them from recovering damages.
Sen. Elder Vogel (R-Beaver) introduced the bill that has the support of the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association.
“For Pennsylvania’s trucking industry, this legislation is about fairness and making sure civil cases are decided on all of the relevant facts,” the association said in a statement. “When a crash occurs, determining what happened and why someone was injured is critical. If an individual was not wearing a seat belt, that fact may be relevant to understanding the cause or severity of their injuries.”