New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. (I, D, WF-Sag Harbor) today announced that his bill, A.7315/S.4187-A to require the use of seat belts in emergency vehicles owned or operated by a volunteer fire company or volunteer ambulance service has been signed into law by Governor Cuomo as Chapter 448 of the Laws of 2015.

The new law reverses a prior exemption on the use of seatbelts. It has been reported that the single largest cause of Volunteer Firefighter and EMS responder deaths is vehicle accidents to and from incident scenes. The largest contributor to those deaths is failure to wear a seat belt. This new law is consistent with current training and operation procedures in place to promote seat belt use. The bill is supported by the Fireman’s Association of the State of New York.