The driver and passengers in a passenger car or light truck are required to use safety belts at all times, even if the car has airbags.  Each car is required to have a safety belt for every passenger. 

The police can and will pull you over for not wearing your safety belt.

If your car is a 1968 model or newer, it must have lap type seat belts. If it is a 1970 model or newer, it must also have shoulder harnesses for use in the front seats.

Every occupant of the car that is at least 5 years old and weighs 40 or more pounds must be wearing a seat belt.  Passengers under 5 or lighter than 40 pounds must be securely fastened in an approved child safety seat.

For your child safety:

	There are three types of approved car seats:
	-- Infant, for children up to 20 pounds.
	-- Booster, for children between 40 and 60 pounds.
	-- Convertible, that fits children from birth to 40 pounds.
	Make sure the car seat label says dynamically crash tested and manufactured after 1981. Read and follow the seat manufacturer's instructions and vehicle owner's manual to ensure proper installation.
	Never hold a child on your lap or buckle yourself and a child into a single safety belt.
	Never buckle 2 children into a single safety belt.

For more information please call the Office of Traffic Safety at (775) 687-5720.

Safety belts are your life belts. They prevent you from being thrown from your car, from hitting the dashboard, or being jostled out of position and losing control of your car. 

Seat belts:

	Keep you inside your car.  Your chances of being killed in an accident are five times greater if you are thrown from your car.
	Keep you from smashing into the dashboard or windshield.
	Keep you well positioned behind the steering wheel and in the best position to maintain control of your car.

Studies have shown that in USA up to 85% fewer fatalities occur when accident victims had both safety shoulder harnesses and seat belts fastened.

Wearing your safety belt is not only a service to you, but your duty to your passengers.  If you are not wearing a seat belt, a sudden stop, swerve, or even a minor crash could throw you into other passengers, hurting both you and them, and destroying your ability to control your car effectively.

Whatever your reasons for not wearing your safety belt, they are certainly irrational and definitely violate the law.

Short Trips

Some drivers rationalize that seat belts are unnecessary during short trips, or trips at slow speeds. 

Over 80% of all accidents occur at speed less than 40 mph. Fatalities involving non-belted occupants of cars have been recorded at speeds as low as 11 mph, which basically the speed you drive in a parking lot.

Three out of four accidents that cause death occur within 25 miles of the home. Belt up if you are going to the shopping center or the movies, just as you would for a longer trip.

Fire and Water

Even more irrationally, some drivers don't wear their belts for fear that if their car were to somehow become submerged in water or were to catch fire in an accident, they might be trapped in the vehicle.

Fewer than one-half of one percent of all injuries from collisions involves either fire or submersion.  Even if your vehicle were to succumb to fire or submersion, the seat belt would still help to save your life and preserve your ability to function in the accident that preceded it.

It takes less than a second to take off your safety belt.   With your safety belt fastened, you are more likely to emerge from any accident unhurt, alert, and capable of escaping quickly.

In almost any collision you are better off being held inside by your safety belt.  Of all the things you can do to lessen the severity of an accident, wearing a safety belt is the single most important – and it is the law.

If you are pregnant, take special care when you put on your seat belt.  When driving, wear your lap belt as low as possible under your abdomen and the shoulder strap between the breasts and to the left of the abdominal bulge.

If a child is under 5 years old or weighs less than 40 pounds, that child must be secured in an approved child safety seat by law.

When you have a child in the car:

	The back seat is the safest place in the car for all children younger than twelve years of age, especially infants.
	Infants up to 20 lbs. and age one or younger should always ride in a "rear facing" safety seat that is solidly secured to the back seat.
	Make sure the vehicle’s seat belt is put through the correct slot in the child safety seat.  Correctly installing a child safety seat can be tricky.  Get it right: your child's life is at stake.
	The rear facing safety seat supports baby's head protecting the neck and spine from injury in most crashes.

If your car has an airbag on the passenger side of the car, either in the door or the dash:

	Never place small children in the front seat, it is extremely dangerous.
	Never place a child safety seat in the front seat.  The force of the airbag will critically harm the child.

Remember, car accidents are the number one preventable cause of death among children – obey the law for their safety.