A St. Joseph non-profit organization plans to present at an upcoming city council work session on the importance of implementing a city seat belt ordinance.

St. Joseph Youth Alliance Executive Director Robin Hammond said Missouri does not have a primary seat belt law. 

“Basically, it’s a secondary. What that means is that officers can’t pull you over just for the fact that you’re not wearing a seat belt. They have to pull you over for something else and then if they determine you were not wearing a seat belt, then that would be a secondary ticket that you would be issued,” Hammond said. “What we really are interested in is making sure that our young people are buckled up in their vehicles. We know from statistics that seat belts save lives. We want to encourage all youth to make sure every time they get in the car, that they put their seat belt on and if they choose not to, then that could be something that they could get a ticket for.”

Hammond said their hope is to create a primary seat belt ordinance for the city and mirror what the county already has set up. 

“We really want to educate our city council members on the importance of having a primary seat belt ordinance. We want them to realize how not wearing your seat belt costs all of us, how it costs us with our insurance rates, but most importantly, how it costs us with people’s lives,” Hammond said. “We’re not talking about whether it’s legal or not legal to wear a seat belt, that’s already been decided. We want them to know that this is going to make a difference in our community, it is going to help save lives and hopefully during the work session, they will come out of there feeling a little bit more educated and prepared about why we believe it’s important.” 

The Youth Alliance will present at a St. Joseph City Council work session at 4:15 p.m. on Sept. 20, at the Kit Bond Science and Technology Incubator.

For more information, contact the St. Joseph Youth Alliance at (816) 232-0050.