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Hi does anyone know the law regarding carrying passengers. if you have side ways seats can you carry passengers or do you have to have forward facing seats with seat belts.
It depends when the van was first registered. The law changed recently to only allow passengers in belted seats. Prior to that it was legal, but risky, to carry passengers in rear seats without belts.
It is not advised to fit belts to sideways seats as the twisting they induce in an accident is deemed worse than rattling about like a rag doll.
We don't make a habit of it but do carry passengers on our sideways seats occasionally. We are, after all, adults and able to assess the risk.
______________________________________________________________ cheers
Roger
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I´m not really as paranoid as everyone thinks I am
It must always be remembered that just because something isn't specifically illegal, doesn't mean that it is specifically legal.
There are plenty of "catch all" laws that can be used to make almost anything that isn't specifically legal - illegal.
It depends when the van was first registered. The law changed recently to only allow passengers in belted seats.
I don't think that is the case. The law requires passengers to occupy belted seats if they are available but if they are not and there are non-belted seats available, then the law does not preclude the use of those seats.
Roger's link is the key to the facts but Gerry's point is vital - if you're not insured for unbelted passengers you have a situation which 'over-rides' the law re. seatbelts and, in effect, puts you in contravention of another law - certainly check this with your insurers.
It is frustrating, to say the least, that many, especially older, vans have 'berth' ratings which supersede their belted seating capacity, something which buyers have to be alert to. We have had people on here who realise their mistake only too late and face the difficult decision of either selling the van and replacing it with a suitable mh or carrying family members in an unsafe way. The problem is exacerbated when child seats come into the equation.
I seem to also remember that children can only travel with seat belts!! So it's OK for adults to travel in unbelted seats provided belted ones are unavailable but children must have seat belts.
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