Ten States You Don’t Have to Wear a Seat Belt in the Back Seat
You have to wear your seat belt when you're driving a car or riding in the front seat. This is the law in every state except New Hampshire. That's right, in the Live Free or Die state, you can wear it or not; it's totally up to you.
But what about the back seat? Do you even put yours on or ask your passengers to?
Federal seat belt laws in the United States only apply to car manufacturers, which means every seat in a car needs a safety belt. However, individual states get to decide the law behind wearing those seat belts, according to the Drive Safe Online website.
According to the Government Highway Safety Association website, 40 states require you to wear your seat belt while riding in the back seat of a vehicle. Here are the 10 states that leave it up to you and your back seat passengers.
- Arkansas
- Colorado
- Florida
- Iowa
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- New Hampshire
- North Dakota
- Ohio
Meanwhile, the 40 states that enforce back seat safety belts have primary or secondary enforcement laws that will affect the driver of the car.
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According to Drive Safe Online, states where seatbelts are a primary law mean you can be pulled over if a police officer notices your backseat passenger isn't buckled up.
In states where it's a secondary law, you can't get pulled over if your backseat passenger isn't wearing one, but if you're pulled over for another reason and your passenger in the backseat isn't buckled in, then that can be added to your violations.
If you want to see where your state stands, including primary versus secondary laws, click here.
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