An Oklahoma Senate bill amended to ensure drivers cannot be arrested for failure to buckle up is headed to a conference committee.

Rep. Thad Balkman, R-Norman, attached an amendment to a criminal procedure bill to include protecting drivers from being arrested for not wearing a seat belt.

The amended version included a provision that any driver stopped in Oklahoma for a traffic violation – such as failure to wear a seat belt – “shall be released at the scene.”

His proposal stems from an incident in Texas that reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1997, a mother and her children were driving through a residential area in Lago Vista, TX, looking for a lost toy, when a police officer pulled them over for not wearing seat belts, Balkman told Land Line. The officer handcuffed the woman in front of her children, impounded her pickup and took her to the police station, where her “mug shot” photo was taken and she was locked in a cell for about an hour. She was released from custody after posting $310 bond and paying $110 to retrieve her vehicle.

SB391 passed the House as amended April 14 by a 99-1 vote. However, the Senate later rejected the amended version.

Balkman said the Senate rejected the amendment because of questions about how it would be interpreted by police.

“They were fearful it would mandate that police ticket seat-belt offenders, so they rejected it,” he said.

Balkman said a House-Senate conference committee would convene shortly to work out the language of the bill. The regular session is scheduled to conclude May 23, but Balkman said the session could be extended to the end of the month.

--by Keith Goble, staff writer

Keith Goble can be reached at kgoble@landlinemag.com.