Yes, to the best of our knowledge from reading through the Oregon laws regarding seat belts and child restraints more than one person in the car can be ticketed if they are not wearing their seat belt.
Oregon and Idaho have different laws regarding seat belts including that in Oregon the seat belt law is a primary offense while it is a secondary offense in Idaho. So while in your home state of ID you need to be pulled over for some other moving violation, such as speeding, to be ticketed for a seat belt violation in OR you can be pulled over just for an officer seeing you without your seat belt being used properly.
Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) Sections 811.210 through 811.225 give the specific wording regarding the state's statutory requirements regarding their seat belt laws. Here are some general descriptions of the seat belt and safety restraint laws that OR has in place.
Oregon law requires that all motor vehicle operators and passengers be properly secured with a safety belt or safety harness, unless all safety-belt equipped seating positions are occupied by other persons. This applies to passenger cars, pickup trucks, motor homes, and fee-based people transport carrying fifteen or fewer persons. Limited exemptions are allowed under ORS 811.215. Vehicle owners are required to maintain belt systems in working order.
Child passengers must be restrained in approved child safety seats until they weigh forty pounds. Infants must ride rear-facing until they reach both one year of age AND twenty pounds. Children over forty pounds must use boosters to 4'9" tall unless they have reached age eight.
Oregon child seat laws generally reflect the US DOT National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recommendations based upon accepted nationwide studies. The NHTSA offers the following two additional recommendations which are not currently included in Oregon law:
- Children should ride rear-facing in their car seat until they reach the upper height or weight limit recommended by the manufacturer of the seat in use (provides greater head protection particularly in a side-impact crash), and
- Children under age thirteen should ride in the back seat (reduces the risk of crash injury by 37% for this age group.)
In Oregon failure to properly use safety belts, is a Class D traffic violation according to ORS 811.210. We did not read anything in the Oregon laws that mention only 1 person in the vehicle could be ticketed for not wearing a seat belt. If neither you nor the driver were wearing your seat belts than you both could be cited for this infraction of state law.
If you are saying that the driver was cited for you, a passenger, not being buckled up properly than if you are under 16 than the driver could be ticketed according to Oregon law. OR law states the a person commits the offense of failure to properly use safety belts if the person operates a motor vehicle with a passenger who is under 16 years of age and the passenger is not properly secured with a child safety system, safety belt or safety harness as required by OR law.
Or if you didn't have a seat belt to put use the car owner could be ticketed under ORS 811.225. Here is says in part that the registered owner of a motor vehicle commits the offense of failure of an owner to maintain safety belts in working order if they fail to maintain the safety belts or safety harnesses in a condition that will enable occupants of all seating positions equipped with safety belts or safety harnesses to use the belts or harnesses. Failure of an owner to maintain safety belts in working order is a Class C traffic violation.
It appears in many counties in Oregon you can ask to take a seat belt use course or a seat belt diversion class to get your seat belt ticket dismissed. For example the Jackson County court says if you have elected to attend the Safety Belt Use Course in lieu of paying a fine to the court, attending the class will dismiss this citation from your driving record. So you may see if this is available to you and the driver that was ticketed as a way to keep the seat belt violation from being reported to Idaho and placed on your ID motor vehicle record (MVR). If not than from the base fine schedules we have seen both a Class C and Class D traffic violation tickets for a seat belt offense is $97 plus courts costs, etc.
Oregon and Idaho are both members of the Drivers License Compact (DLC) so if you are convicted of the seat belt offense it will be reported to the ID Driver's Services section of the Transportation Department.
The Idaho Transportation Department's Driver Services Section receives records for moving violations that occur both in the state of Idaho and in other states plus Canada. Typically out of state tickets are placed on your MVR and assigned points to your Idaho license however we noticed as part of the ID seat belt laws, which are much more relaxed than Oregon and only come with $10 fines, a conviction for a seat belt offense shall not result in violation point counts nor shall such a conviction be deemed to be a moving traffic violation for the purpose of establishing rates of motor vehicle insurance charged by a casualty insurer.
So it appears that even if the Oregon seat belt ticket was placed on your Idaho driving record that your ID insurance company could not raise your rates for what Idaho finds to be a minor offense.
Here is some more information on the Idaho seat belt laws so you also are aware of what they are in your home state.
Idaho Statute 49-673 notes that a person issued a citation pursuant to this subsection shall be subject to a fine of $10. And as we mentioned it does not count as a moving violation for insurance purposes nor is it assigned points. By the way the ID DMV notes that the $10 fine and court costs total $51.50 so this is normally how much you would owe for a seat belt offense in Idaho.
ID law also allows that a citation may be issued to the operator of the motor vehicle if the operator is under eighteen (18) years of age and the operator or any other occupant who is under eighteen (18) years of age fails to wear a safety restraint as required in this section. For purposes of this subsection, it shall be deemed a single violation regardless of the number of occupants not properly restrained. A person issued a citation pursuant to this subsection shall be subject to a fine of ten dollars ($10.00). So I believe this is why you believe in Idaho only one person in the vehicle can be cited for a seat belt offense.
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