Your Responsibility For Your Passengers

As a driver, you are expected to take responsibility for your passengers. This ranges from making sure that you stick to the correct number of passengers for your car to ensuring that all passengers are wearing seatbelts. Failing to take responsibility for your passengers can land you in hot water with the law.

Number of Passengers

It is the responsibility of the driver to ensure that you only have the correct number of passengers in the car. The maximum number of passengers should be determined by the number of seatbelts in the car. Technically, it is legal to allow rear seat passengers to travel unrestrained if there are not enough seatbelts in the car, but this is highly dangerous. It is not uncommon for passengers sitting in the front seat to be killed or severely injured if an unrestrained rear seat passenger is launched into the back of their seat in the event of an accident. Because of this, you should avoid carrying passengers if there is no seatbelt available for them to use. The legal position on carrying more passengers than there are seatbelts in the car will change in May 2009.

Seatbelts

As a driver, you are legally obliged to ensure that any passengers aged under fourteen in your car wear seatbelts. For children under the age of three, you need to make sure that they are adequately restrained in a child restraint (such as a booster seat, child seat, baby carrier or baby harness that carries an BS kitemark or a UN "E" mark, and is suitable for the child's weight), especially in the front seat. It is illegal to allow a child seat to face backwards if you have front airbags in your car due to the risk of being crushed or suffocated. Children over the age of three should also be adequately restrained in the front and back seats in a child restraint until they reach 4 foot 5 inches or turn twelve. If there are already two occupied child restraints in the rear of the car, children aged over three may travel unrestrained on short journeys if there is no room for a third child restraint and adult seatbelts are not available. If an adult seatbelt is available, the child should wear this instead. For children aged over twelve or above 4 foot 5 inches, adult seatbelts should be worn. For passengers aged fourteen and above, it is their personal responsibility to wear a seatbelt.

The Legal Position

It is considered an offence for a driver to allow front or rear seat passengers to travel without a seatbelt if there is one available to wear.

If you are convicted of driving without a seatbelt, you can be fined up to £500. If you accept a fixed penalty notice, you will usually be fined £30. If you don't accept this, you can be taken to court and fined £500.

If you are convicted of failing to ensure that a child is adequately restrained (in either a seatbelt or a child restraint) according to the legal guidelines, you can also be fined up to £500. You will not currently be given penalty points on your driving license for seatbelt offences.