Buckle Up! Efforts to Reinstate the Seat Belt Defense in Georgia Have Stalled
By: Rachel Mathews
The most recent efforts to amend Georgia law to allow the introduction of a plaintiff’s seat belt use into evidence have once again stalled. Under the current version of O.C.G.A. § 40-8-76.1, the failure of an occupant of a motor vehicle to wear a seat belt is inadmissible at trial to establish negligence, causation or any other question of liability or damages. One of the original purposes of the statute was to ensure that tortfeasors whose negligence results in vehicular collisions cannot escape liability by raising the defense that the injured party was not wearing a seat belt. Georgia is one of 31 states that currently have laws restricting the admissibility of seat belt usage into evidence.
The prohibition of the “seat belt defense” at trial has plagued the defense bar in Georgia and its clients since its institution in 1988. Opponents of the statute argue it prohibits civil defendants in both automobile accident and products liability cases from presenting all relevant evidence to the jury. Occupants of motor vehicles in Georgia are required by law to wear seat belts and, in many cases, a plaintiff’s failure to wear their seat belt contributes to the severity of the injuries sustained. Without the ability to present evidence of a plaintiff’s failure to use a seat belt, defendants are left without a key piece of evidence to support a defense under Georgia’s apportionment statute, which provides that a jury shall consider the percentage of fault of a plaintiff.
Given these concerns, the defense bar has made efforts over the years to amend O.C.G.A. § 40-8-76.1 to allow a plaintiff’s failure to use a seat belt to be admissible as evidence. Earlier this year, the Georgia Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Senate Bill 155. The bill would have amended the statute to provide that a failure to wear a seat belt “may be considered in any civil action as evidence admissible on the issues of failure to mitigate damages, assumption of risk, apportionment of fault, negligence, comparative negligence, contributory negligence, or causation.” Despite support of the bill from the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business and the Georgia Motor Trucking Association, the Judiciary Committee rejected the bill in a 5-4 vote.
After the failure of Senate Bill 155, its proponents inserted the same language into Senate Bill 203, and the Georgia Senate Transportation Committee passed it by a 6-2 vote. Unfortunately, the Georgia Senate failed to pass Senate Bill 203 by Crossover Day, the day by which a bill must be passed out of either the House or the Senate. Nevertheless, legislators once again incorporated the above-quoted language as an amendment to House Bill 200 in the Georgia Senate Public Safety Committee. The Public Safety Committee passed the amended bill with a 5-2 vote, but unfortunately the full Senate never had the opportunity to vote on the bill and it ultimately stalled.
Attempts to amend the law regarding seat belt usage date back to 2014, when similar legislation was introduced, but rejected. As insurance companies, auto-manufacturers and the defense bar support the proposal to amend the law to allow for the introduction of seat belt use, we can expect future bills to amend the current law to advance. Until that time, however, defendants are still prohibited from introducing evidence of a plaintiff’s failure to use a seat belt, even if that failure contributed to the plaintiff’s injuries.
Attorney Contact Info
Rachel Mathews
rachel.mathews@swiftcurrie.com
404.888.6201