The Vehicle Code in the State of California requires all the drivers including their passengers to wear their respective seatbelts every time they travel. No one is exempted from such rule that aims to prevent or at least lessen the occurrence of serious and fatal injuries in case a car collision happens. All of those who will be caught violating this law will be subjected to an offense.

The California government believes that seatbelts indeed, save lives. This is the main reason why sufficient signs and billboards have been situated on our roads and highways, allowing the motorists to understand the value of seatbelts. Their slogan “Click it or Ticket” makes a lot of sense and creates a slight decrease in the number of injuries and fatalities caused by vehicular accidents.

In spite of this, traffic accident occurrences seem to be unstoppable. Thousands of people are still involved in various car mishaps everyday. Due to this, the victims in order to seek justice and recover suitable damages for their injuries or loss of a loved one are filing numerous car accident claims in courts.

Under the law, the failure to wear seatbelts in traveling may jeopardize or limit a victim’s right to recover damages from the liable party after a road collision. This is because the law believes that the victims might not have incurred much damage if only they were able to buckle-up.

The law maintains that whosoever individual who has been neglectful in exercising due prudence, which can brought about risks to other people, should be accountable for the harm that resulted. A person’s failure to wear seatbelt constitutes negligence on his part. Thus, this carelessness may be considered as a ground that forbids him to recover damages from the other party, no matter the degree of his fault in the accident.

Many defense lawyers utilize the same rationale especially if their clients accepted their fault in the accident. They thoroughly determine whether the plaintiff has committed any violation in order to nullify the case. If they were able to prove the comparative fault of the victims, the courts would most likely repeal the case filed against their clients.

Nonetheless, any personal injury action will have better probability of gaining a positive result if the plaintiff are assured that he has not been neglectful in exercising due care in his dealings – that he has not committed any offense.

By: Rainier Policarpio