Traffic regulations are not always completely clear and our mission is to clarify possible doubts, no matter how insignificant they may seem. In passenger cars it is clear that the seat belt reminder is mandatory, but is it also mandatory in trucks?
This is a question that may arise for carriers, opponents who are examined in the practical part with driving tests or drivers of courier companies, for example.
Surely you already know that the security forces and bodies, whenever it is an emergency operation, are authorized to drive without fastening their seat belt. But the question here is not that, but whether it is mandatory or not in a truck, both the visual warning on the vehicle’s dashboard, and the sound warning. Or maybe only one of them is necessary?
First of all, it is important to point out that the obligation to incorporate the belts themselves in a vehicle was sequential, beginning many years ago with cars; and ending much later by trucks.
Specifically, since 1974 it is mandatory for all cars to mount seat belts in the front seats and since 1992, in the rear seats.
And as of October 20, 2007, the use of front seat belts in all types of vehicles, including buses and trucks, becomes mandatory. Although going in an emergency, as we have already mentioned, is one of the exceptions (6 cases in which it is not mandatory to wear a seat belt).
For years before, there was a law that said: it is mandatory to fasten the seat belt if it is present; so for trucks prior to the aforementioned 10/20/07. In the case of having built it with the then ‘belt option’, although they were not mandatory, some manufacturer chose to go ahead, it was mandatory to fasten them, even though the aforementioned mandatory presence date had not yet arrived.
Much later than what was indicated above is the arrival of the warning device for forgetting to fasten the seat belt in cars, that is, the warning light on the dashboard that indicates to the driver and passengers that they must fasten their seat belts.
Regardless of the fact that this was born as an option, and that it was even mounted only on one of the seats; The aforementioned warning device becomes mandatory for the first row of seats as of 2014, which is when the European Union made it mandatory.
And at that moment it is where it was specified, for the moment, only for the front seats, that said alarm could be acoustic and/or visual to indicate that the seat belt is not fastened. And it is from July 2022 that this notice is mandatory for rear seats (vehicles manufactured after that date). And we insist that this is in relation to passenger cars.
This is information contained in Regulation number 16 of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Specifically in the uniform provisions relating to the approval of seat belts, restraint systems, child restraint systems and ISOFIX child restraint systems for occupants of motor vehicles.
With the entry into force of the GSR2 on July 6 of this year, the UN/ECE Regulation No. 16 to the 07 series of amendments became mandatory for new registrations.
This series is the one that introduced the seatbelt warning system in all seating positions for M1 and N1, and only in the seating positions of the first row in M2 and N2 (also in M3 and N3). So in trucks until this year 2022 the acoustic or light warning of the seat belt has not been mandatory.
And it must be specified that, in the case of a truck with several rows of seats (common in emergency and fire trucks, for example); the obligation is only for the first row.