Can a city police officer (Grants Pass, OR) pull you over only for not wearing your seat belt? I always thought that they had to pull you over for some other infraction first.

In Oregon the seat belt law is a primary offense so you can be pulled over for this offense only.

In OR you can be pulled over just for an officer seeing you without your seat belt being used properly since it is a primary offense. If it was a secondary offense you need to be pulled over for some other moving violation, such as speeding, to be ticketed for a seat belt violation however that is not so in Oregon which has the primary offense seat belt law.

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.

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.

CarInsurance.com can help you with affordable Oregon car insurance whether you have a clean record or violations such as a seat belt ticket on there.