Unbuckled seat belts now a 'primary violation'

On June 30, unbuckled seat belts on a driver or front-seat passenger became a "primary violation" allowing police to execute a traffic stop. Arkansas is the 27th state to enact primary seat belt legislation.

According to Eureka Springs Police Chief Earl Hyatt, failure to buckle-up is an "infraction. It's not a crime, misdemeanor or moving violation. It won't put points on your driver's license."

Hyatt said the penalty for failure to buckle-up for a first-offense is a fine of $50.

"We don't write a lot of tickets for unbuckled seat belts," he said. "At first we'll probably issue some warnings and then go to citations later."

Col. Winford E. Phillips, director of the Arkansas State Police, said "We hope motorists will buckle up regardless of any change in enforcement because they are law-abiding citizens. Writing more tickets is not the focus of this legislation," said Col. Winford E. Phillips, director of the Arkansas State Police. "It is the hope of law enforcement that seat belt use goes up so high we do not have to write a single ticket and, as a result, have fewer fatal crashes to handle."