The requirement to _wear_ seat belts varies from state to state. California
law requires them to be worn by everyone in the car, front or back, in any
vehicle that either has belts, or was required to have belts when it was
new.
This means if I ever add belts to my TR3, I can then be cited for not
wearing them, but if I don't add them, I can't be cited !
According to the CA DMVs web site, US federal law required seat belts in all
cars after 1968, trucks after 1972. However, my 65 Olds had lap belts front
& rear, so there must be some truth to Fred's 1964 figure. ISTR my 62 Chevy
had only front belts. Perhaps the rules were different for domestic and
foreign cars, or were in dispute for several years.
BTW, I know several people (including myself) that probably would have been
severely injured IF they had been wearing their lap and shoulder belts...
The major difference is that all of these accidents were not the "hitting a
brick wall" type accident used to collect statistics on how wonderful seat
belts are, but instead involved a foreign object penetrating the passenger
compartment. (In my case, it was the front end of a 72 Buick Skylark.)
Randall
59 TR3A daily driver
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-triumphs@autox.team.net
> [mailto:owner-triumphs@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Fred Thomas
> Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 1999 11:08 AM
> To: ArthurK101@aol.com; gprtech@frontiernet.net; sujitroy@yahoo.com
> Cc: stag-digest@digest.net; triumphs@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: rear seat belts (US specific)
>
>
>
> If my memory serves me right, only the "front" seat
> passengers are required
> by law to wear seat belts, never remember anything about back seat
> passengers being required to wear them, this does not apply
> to child safety
> seats, remember the year of cars we are talking about. In the
> U.S. seat
> belts did not become mandatory in new cars until July 1964. "FT"
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