New law requires teens in back to buckle up

After an accident that left him in a coma for 10 days, 18-year-old Isaiah Krull has a message for teenagers who would rather not wear seat belts in the back seat: buckle up.

Krull helped push for a law slated to take effect July 1 that will require everyone younger than 18 and riding in the back seat of a vehicle to use seat belts or restraints. The current law requires the use of seat belts or restraints in the back seat only for those younger than 11.

Two years ago, Krull, of rural Shell Rock, was riding in the back seat of a car with his friends when the vehicle hit a bus on a gravel road. Krull wasn't wearing a seat belt. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, and doctors didn't think he would come out of his coma.

“I'm like 100 percent certain that (it's) thanks to God that I'm still alive and that I can still walk,” Krull said. “The doctor said I'd be a vegetable my entire life.”

Krull said the accident has affected his short-term memory, and he has blind spots in his vision. The injury was on the left side of his brain, and now his right arm and leg are not as strong.

The blind spots affected his plans to be a commercial airline pilot. He's now attending Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo to become a physical therapist assistant.

Krull helped lobby for the law, but said he's not finished yet because it doesn't extend to adults.

Advocates believe the requirement for teens will mean fewer fatalities and injuries for youths involved in traffic accidents.

Kathy Leggett is director of the Center for Advocacy and Outreach at Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines. She said studies show that lap and shoulder belts used in the back seat of a car are 44 percent effective in reducing fatalities, a figure that goes up to 73 percent when used in a sport-utility vehicle or van.

Leggett's recommendations to parents are that, from the beginning, they use child safety seats, booster seats and seat belts to make it part of the culture of the family.

“When everybody gets in the car, everybody buckles up appropriately,” Leggett said.

Parents can serve as a role model for their children, so they learn it is a lifelong habit, she said.

“It's a very simple thing that can really make a difference in life or death or in permanent disability,” Leggett said.

Under the new law, adults are still free not to use a seat belt in the back seat.

“We would love to have everybody in a car buckled up, but the Legislature so far has just gone up to the age of 18 in the back seat,” said Mark Nagel, retired police officer who is now the occupant protection coordinator with the Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau.

Passengers in the front seat have to be buckled up.