Several cities across the state have taken on admittedly ambitious plans to end traffic deaths.

For example, the City of Omaha earlier this year gave the green light to the so-called Vision Zero plan.

But according to some safety experts there’s a key state law standing in the plan’s way.

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So far this year 27 people have died in Omaha car wrecks, down from 41 all of last year.

A marked improvement but city officials are pushing for zero…a national move known as Vision Zero to be exact.

Mayor Jean Stothert, Omaha (R): “25 recommendations and a list of priority road projects to help us reach the goal of ending traffic fatalities in Omaha by 2045, an ambitious but necessary goal.”

City Council President Pete Festersen, Omaha (D): “Things like speed enforcement and requests for traffic calming, safe routes to school, walkability, safe bike lanes. I’m pleased to see a number of these things addressed in this plan.”

While working to make streets safer it appears Omaha has run into a snag, seat belts.

In its 45-page plan Vision Zero notes that 27%, nearly one of every three Omaha traffic fatalities, were not wearing seat belts or wearing them improperly.

Nationwide 92 percent of drivers buckle up, but in Nebraska it’s 76 percent, one of the lowest in the country, down from 86 percent in 2017.

When it comes to the non-use of seat belts, Nebraska’s highway safety guru Bill Kovarik (Nebraska Highway Safety Administration) tells NCN, “Nebraska has had a secondary seat belt law so long, drivers do not believe it will be enforced.”

That secondary law, instead of a primary seat belt law, boils down to this, you can’t be ticketed for not wearing a seat belt in Nebraska, unless you are ticketed for something else first. Experts find the secondary law weak.

Joe Jordan, NCN: “Is there any data that supports going to primary is going to get more people to wear seat belts?”

Tom Everson, Vision Zero/Keep Kids Alive Drive 25 (2019): “Primary laws have been shown to move the needle. Still education has to happen to get people to engage in that and be aware that there is an expectation in the first place. Honestly in Nebraska our expectations seem to be pretty low.”

A few years ago, then Gov. Pete Ricketts, now Sen. Ricketts, citing personal responsibility told me “The law we have on the books right now is appropriate.”

Gov. Jim Pillen tells NCN it would be “premature to comment” on a legislative proposal (making the secondary seat belt offense a primary offense) that has not been introduced.