WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Mandatory seat-belt laws aren't just for drivers and front-seat passengers anymore, a survey of states indicates.
More states are expanding their laws to require adults sitting in the back seat to buckle up, USA Today reports.
Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey and Texas have joined the half of the states requiring seat belts for all occupants since 2007, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says.
Unbuckled passengers "become a back-seat bullet" in a crash, says Pam Fischer, New Jersey's highway traffic safety director. In collisions, unbelted rear-seat passengers keep moving at the rate of the vehicle until they strike something -- a seat back, dashboard, windshield or people in the front seat. Yet many see the back seat as safer.
The national rate of seat belt use has been rising and last year hit 84 percent, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said. But use among back-seat passengers was only 74 percent in 2008.
