RICHMOND, Va. — The Virginia Senate's legislation, requiring passenger in any seat of a vehicle to wear a seat belt, was shot down.
The Senate Transportation Committee voted to shelve the bill, SB 1282, indefinitely on Wednesday. The bill would have expanded Virginia's seat belt requirements.
Current law only requires the driver and front-seat passenger to wear a safety belt, and children must be secured in a car seat.
Also, this law does not allow a police officer to pull a driver and give them a ticket for not wearing a seat belt.
The new law that was killed would have required passengers in the back seat of a vehicle to wear a seat belt and law enforcement would have been able to pull drivers over if they, or a passenger, was not wearing a seat belt.
In bill was shot down in a 6 to 5 vote. The six Republicans delegates on the panel, Carrico, Cosgrove, DeSteph, Chase, Suetterlein, and Peake voted to not move the bill forward. The Democratic committee members, Deeds, Marsden, Favola, Edwards, McClellan voted to keep the bill alive.