Seat Belts

  • Ensure that all vehicles used at work, including private ones, are fitted with seat belts for all occupants.
  • Ensure that if your employees travel by coach, they comply with legal requirements to wear a seat belt if it is provided.
  • If you operate coaches in which seat belts are fitted, you must follow legal requirements to remind passengers to use them.
  • Ensure that any children who travel in cars and vans when driving at work are in the right child seat and that the seat is properly fitted. Do not allow a rear-facing baby seat to be on a front seat protected by an active airbag.
  • Drivers are required by law to use a seat belt if one is fitted; the only exemption being goods vehicle users undertaking deliveries or collections if they travel no more than 50 metres between stops.
  • Make the failure to wear a seat belt as driver or the failure to request passengers to wear a seat belt a disciplinary offence.
  • Advise drivers and front passengers to sit as far back as reasonably possible from the steering wheel or dashboard to reduce the possibility of serious head or chest injuries in the event of an accident.
  • Explain your policy in the driver handbook and communicate the need to use seat belts throughout all hierarchy levels of the company.