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Transportation Safety

Occupant Protection

Contact

Carla Levinski
Phone Number: 503 986-4199
FAX:  503 986-3143
 
ODOT - Transportation Safety Division - MS 3
4040 Fairview Industrial Drive SE
Salem, OR 97302-1142

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Program Overview




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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Movie - Wear Safety Belts

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! 

 
Watch this 3-minute video explaining Oregon's safety belt and child seat laws.
Wear Safety Belts - Adobe Flash Player
 
 
 

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Goals, Issues and Statistics

 
 
2011 Belt Use in Crashes by County
 
 
 

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Safety Belt & Child Seat Laws

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.
 
NATIONAL "BEST PRACTICE" RECOMMENDATIONS
The latest national best practices recommendations from USDOT National Highway Traffic Safety.
 
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 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.  
 
ATVS
Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is the implementing agency for laws and rules relating to use of restraints on ATVs.
 
MEDICAL EXEMPTIONS
ORS 811.220 The Director of Transportation shall issue a certificate of exemption under ORS 811.215 for any person on 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.
 
 
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Safety Belt Exemption Form

Faxes can not be accepted. Please send in ORIGINAL copies only.

 
For more information, please contact Melody McGee, Seatbelt Medical Exemption Coordinator:
(503) 986-3590

 

 

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Child Passenger Safety

ACTS Oregon Child Safety Seat Resource Center
(503) 643-5620 (Portland Area)
(877) 793-2608

Car Seats Product Listing (American Academy of Pediatrics)

 
Get Microsoft SilverlightKnow It Alls

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Click It or Ticket-Enforcement

 
 Be Smart. Be Safe. Click It or Ticket

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 during FY2013. ODOT's Transportation Safety Division provides scheduling and instructional materials to participating agencies prior to each blitz. Participating agencies are asked to 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. 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.
 
Statewide crash fatality and injury rates have dropped 59% and 37% respectively since passage of the adult belt law in 1990. The law, combined with active enforcement, has resulted in a 2012 Oregon belt use rate of 97% for all occupants, placing Oregon among the top two belt-use states in the U.S. This compares to a nationwide average rate of 84% among all states.
 
During the last previous grant year, $521,911 in federal safety belt overtime expenditure brought 54,419 total enforcement contacts and paid officers to assist at child seat checks and other local educational events. Total overtime contacts were as follows: 18,294 safety belt, 453 child seat, 9,003 speeding, 398 DUII, 1,976 suspensions, 303 felonies, and 23,992 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.)
 
For more information on this program, contact Carla Levinski, ODOT Occupant Protection Program Manager at (503) 986-4199.
 
 
 
May 2013 Presspoints


Safety Belt Overtime Enforcement Grants:

 
 
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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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