Nabors Well Services, Ltd. v. Romero

For more than forty years evidence of a plaintiffs failure to use a seat belt has been inadmissible in car-accident cases. That rule, which this Court first announced in 1974, offered plaintiffs safe harbor from the harshness of an all-or-nothing scheme that barred recovery for even the slightest contributory negligence. Moreover, the Court reasoned that although a plaintiffs failure to use a seat belt may exacerbate his injuries, it cannot cause a car accident, and therefore should not affect a plaintiffs recovery.

In 1985 the Legislature jumped in to statutorily prohibit evidence of use or…