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Anon
By AA | Moderator | 844 Posts | 27 January 2011 at 10:58am

What is the current law regarding baby and child restraints in vintage and veteran cars?

Kathryn

Note; this question was published in the Veteran Car Club bulletin which was passed on to to the AA via the Federation of Motoring Clubs.

The answer has been researched and answered by Mark Stockdale from the Wellington office - thanks Mark.

From the "Ask Jack" archives - 14 December 2009

jbiddle
By jbiddle | Community Member | 1657 Posts | 27 January 2011 at 11:19am

In response to your query, the Road User Rule requires a driver to ensure that "...every passenger under the age of 5 is properly restrained by an approved child restraint appropriate for that passenger." However, as you probably know, this does not apply to a vehicle manufactured before 1955 in which no seatbelts or restraints are available.

Additionally, the driver should ensure that any child between 5-8 years uses a child restraint ("if such a restraint is available") or seatbelt ("...that is available"), while drivers are also responsible for ensuring children aged 8-15 also wear a seatbelt if they are "occupying a seat that is fitted with a seat belt".

So the simple answer is, you are under no obligation to ensure children of any age are restrained in any way in a veteran or (pre-1955) vintage car, if it is not fitted with any seatbelts.

Besides vintage vehicles, the same exemptions apply to buses or trucks if belts aren't fitted - the vast majority of buses in NZ don't have any seatbelts, yet 100,000 children travel on school buses every day, virtually without incident.

By way of clarification, a vehicle first registered (in any country) before 1955 is not required to have any seatbelts fitted; after that front belts became compulsory in NZ but rear seatbelts weren't mandatory until November 1979. However, any classic car built from 1961, but not registered in NZ until after 1991, is also required to have rear seatbelts fitted.

If you are interested in retro-fitting seatbelts, there are regulations around specification and installation standards contained in the Seatbelts and Seatbelt Anchorages Rule. This would require the modification to be certified by an engineer, and is a complex and costly process. I would also caution against fitting lap-only belts (probably the only realistic option in open veteran/vintage cars without strong pillars to mount the anchorage for lap-and-diagonal belts) as these have been shown to be particularly harmful to children. There are global moves to ban them from all new vehicle production.