Toward a Rational Seat Belt Policy in Kansas

Former Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Derrick Thomas and New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine share important characteristics: both were injured in automobile accidents when they were not wearing seat belts. Both men’s failure to buckle up defied mandatory seat belt laws enacted by the states in which their accidents occurred. Both men’s non-use of seat belts were highly publicized in the news media. But under Kansas law, whether a jury could hear evidence of either man’s seat belt use would turn on the type of tort claim he brought. Jurors in a 2004 product liability suit brought in Missouri by Derrick Thomas’s family against General Motors heard all about Thomas’s not wearing a seat belt. Thomas was killed on January 23, 2000 when the Chevrolet Suburban he was driving rolled over and he was ejected. In their suit against General Motors, Thomas’s family alleged the Suburban’s defective roof design caused Thomas’s death. At trial, attorneys for General Motors argued, to a defense verdict, that Thomas’s injuries were due to Thomas’s speeding and failure to wear a seat belt, not to a design defect. The seat belt evidence was thought to have played a decisive role in the jurors’ verdict. Counsel for Thomas’s family attributed the defense verdict to the intense attention paid to Thomas’s not wearing his seat belt. If Thomas’s family had brought their suit in Kansas, the jury could have considered this important piece