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## Protecting Yourself and Your Passengers 

No one can be completely protected from being in a crash. You cannot predict what other drivers will do. 

During an average lifetime of driving, we face about a one-in-three chance of being seriously injured or killed in a motor vehicle crash. 

## Seat Belts 

The driver and all passengers in a motor vehicle manufactured with seat belts shall have a seat belt properly fastened about his or her body at all times when the vehicle is in forward motion on a street or highway in this state. Children under age 16 should be in an age and weight appropriate restraint. Under the seat belt law, all occupants MUST wear seat belts even if the vehicle is equipped with air bags. If the vehicle is equipped with automatic shoulder harnesses, the lap belt MUST also be worn. 

## Exemptions to the seat belt law: 

• A driver or occupant of a noncommercial motor vehicle with a medical or physical condition that prevents appropriate restraint by a seat belt or with a professionally certified mental phobia against the wearing of vehicle restraints; 

• A motor vehicle operated by a rural letter carrier of the United States Postal Service while performing duties as a rural letter carrier, and a motor vehicle operated by a newspaper delivery person while actually engaged in delivery of newspapers along the person's specified route; 

• A driver or passenger frequently stopping and leaving the vehicle or delivering property from the vehicle if the speed of the vehicle between stops does not exceed 20 miles per hour; 

• Any vehicle registered and licensed as a property-carrying vehicle while being used for agricultural purposes in intrastate commerce. 

• A motor vehicle not required to be equipped with seat belts by law; and 

• Any occupant of a motor home other than the driver and front seat passengers, provided the motor home has at least four of the following facilities: cooking, refrigeration or icebox, self-contained toilet, heating or air- conditioning, portable water supply system with a faucet and sink, separate 110-115-volt electrical power supply or an LP gas supply. 

• Situations where all seating positions equipped with child passenger restraint systems or seat belts are occupied; 

## Child Safety 

Each year hundreds of North Carolina children are seriously injured or killed in automobile crashes. In fact, the number one threat to the lives of young children is the automobile accident. Only crash-tested child safety seats can reduce these tragedies. Since small children cannot make safety choices for themselves, adults must make sure children are protected every time they 

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