Passenger Seat Belt Laws
Seat belts are one of the most common, easy-to-use safety features of modern automobiles. Since they became mandatory in the 1960s, seat belts have grown in use and have prevented countless traffic deaths and injuries. The laws regarding when passengers must wear a seat belt vary from state to state and often depend on the passenger's age.
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Legal Basics
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In the United States, seat belts became required equipment in all new passenger vehicles beginning in 1968. This law was based on testing that showed that seat belt use could prevent many traffic deaths and reduce serious injury in many types of accidents. The law required that seat belts be included at all of a vehicle's seating positions, whereas laws in Europe and elsewhere only required seat belts to be installed in the front seat of a car. Use of seat belts, however, remained entirely optional.
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Usage Laws
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In 1984 New York became the first state to enact a seat belt use law. It required that the driver and all front seat passengers at least 16 years old wear seat belts while the vehicle is in use. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, seat belt usage laws spread to other states. Today, all states with the exception of New Hampshire have a law requiring seat belt use for certain passengers. These laws usually complement a separate law regarding child seats and where children can be seated legally, until they reach a certain age or height and can sit in a standard car seat safely.
Age Restrictions
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Each state with a seat belt use law sets its own limit on the age at which passengers must wear seat belts. This is due to the fact that seat belts are designed for average-size adults and may be dangerous for small children, especially those who should be in a child seat. In most states, the age at which seat belt use becomes mandatory is between 16 and 18. In Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Massachusetts, children must wear seat belts from age 13. Other states with lower age restrictions, such as six or seven, include Nevada, Idaho, Kentucky, and Florida.
Seating Positions
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In addition to different age (or height) restrictions, some states have seat belt laws that apply differently to passengers in a vehicle's various seating positions. In general, drivers and front seat passengers of a certain age must always wear a seat belt. Rear seat passengers who are of age must wear seat belts in states like California, Maine, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Washington, D.C. In many other states, seat belt laws only apply to front seat passengers, though seat belt use in rear seats may be strongly encouraged.
Enforcement
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Just as seat belt use laws vary from state to state, so too do the types of enforcement. Fines vary from around $10 to over $200 (October 2009 data), and citation fees may make the actual cost of a ticket even higher. In thirty states, seat belt use laws are a matter of primary enforcement, meaning that a police officer can stop and ticket a driver when someone in the car is in violation of the law. The other 19 states with laws consider the issue secondary enforcement, meaning that a seat belt use violation ticket can only be issued when the vehicle has been stopped for a separate, more serious traffic violation.
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