The time might be right to approve a tougher seat-belt rule in Kentucky, a state transportation official recently said.

Deputy Transportation Secretary Jim Adams said the cabinet “is ready to aggressively support” a measure in the 2006 legislative session that would permit police to pull over drivers in Kentucky who are not buckled up.

“The idea is to save lives,” Adams told the Lexington Herald-Leader after leaving an interim Transportation Committee meeting Nov. 1. He also noted that $11 million in federal highway funds are at risk if the state fails to approve a primary enforcement bill by Dec. 31, 2008.

The Highway Bill approved by Congress this summer gives any state that adopts tougher seat-belt rules or achieves a belt usage rate of 85 percent a one-time grant money equal to 500 percent of the highway funding they received in 2003.

Existing Kentucky law prohibits law enforcement officers to stop a driver solely for not wearing a seat belt. To issue seat-belt citations, drivers must be stopped for another traffic violation, such as speeding.

The idea has drawn consideration in the state for several years, but hasn’t received backing from gubernatorial administrations, including Gov. Ernie Fletcher.

A spokeswoman for Fletcher told The Associated Press the governor may be reconsidering his earlier position and will check on legislative support for a stricter seat-belt rule.

Kentucky is one of 28 states without the stricter provision. Twenty-one states allow police to pull over drivers solely for not wearing their seat belts. New Hampshire is the only state without a mandatory seat-belt law.