CONCORD – The New Hampshire House yesterday passed a mandatory seatbelt bill, requiring anyone in a moving car to be belted.

The bill, which passed 153-140, would allow a police officer to stop and ticket anyone for driving without a seatbelt, or for having an unbelted passenger.

The offense carries a $50 fine for a first offense, $100 for a second offense.

New Hampshire is the last in the country without a law requiring all adults to wear a seatbelt. It also has the lowest rate of adult seatbelt use in the nation, at 64 percent. States with mandatory belt laws have usage in the 90 percent range, the bill's supporters said yesterday.

New Hampshire law already requires the use of car seats for children and seatbelt use by anyone under 18.

The bill has the support of health officials, medical professionals, police chiefs and the state's Department of Safety.

It moves next to the state Senate, where Senate President Sylvia Larsen, D-Concord, said she has not yet gauged support among the Democratic majority.

Larsen said the state stands to gain more than $3 million in federal highway aid if mandatory seatbelts become law.

"It was an alluring benefit the federal government would give us," she said, "but we haven't had time to discuss the full policy." Gov. John Lynch did not say whether he will sign the bill.

"The governor believes seatbelts save lives and will be talking to lawmakers about the bill," spokesman Colin Manning said.

In 2005, the House, then run by Republicans, killed a similar bill by a vote of 180-124. Now in the minority, Republicans said yesterday passage of the bill was an example of Democrats running amuck.

"First it was higher taxes and fees, and then it was civil unions," the House minority office said in a statement, calling passage "an assault on personal freedom." Minority Leader Rep. Michael Whalley, R-Alton, said "the common sense of New Hampshire residents does not need to be legislated. This is a pro-freedom issue."

Speakers who supported the bill said the move is overdue. "Seatbelts are the least expensive and easiest way of saving lives and reducing injuries," Rep. Robert Williams, R-Concord, said. "Requiring seatbelts is just plain, good public safety policy."

Rep. Joel Winters, D-Nashua, argued that people should be free to decide for themselves.

"Legislative common sense is a very slippery slope, and the proper approach is education, not legislation," he said.

Other opponents of the bill (HB 802) said it is an example of big government overreaching to force people to protect themselves.

"We are the last state that treats adults like adults," said Rep. Jason Bedrick, R-Windham. "We don't need a paternalistic Legislature coming in and telling adults what they can and cannot do." He argued, "It's about whether government should tell us to do something in our own self interest and punish us if we don't."

Bill sponsor Rep. Martha McLeod, D-Franconia, said requiring all to wear seatbelts, "will save lives, reduce injuries and reduce some of the burdens on our health care system."

Rep. Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, and a few others seized on the health burden argument. They said that if the state were to be consistent, it should ban alcohol and tobacco, too, since they lead to conditions that create burdens on the health care system.

"This is not about seatbelts, but about government mandating seatbelts," he said. "Let's not be the same as every other state. What's wrong with being different?"