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Does anybody Know what the law is re Safety belts /traveling in rear of van. I have a Hobby 725 which has 4 seat belts but sleeps 6!. There may be the occaision when we need to carry an extra person. Weight is not an issue as we have a tag axle. Does anybody know if seat belts can be retro fitted.
You are not required to have belts for all passengers, in larger vehicles they can actually increase rather than decrease risk (the safest vehicles in the world do not have seat belts fitted at all)
George is absolutely right in his advice but just to expand slightly:
There is no legal requirement for passengers in the rear of a M/H to wear seat belts if none are fitted. But if they are fitted then I understand that they must be used, so fill up your belted seats first. I wouldn't advise trying to retro-fit belts, you could end up causing a more dangerous situation than existed without belts - especially on side-facing seats where belts can cause more injuries than they prevent.
As George says, the safest forms of transport don't have seat belts!
______________________________________________________________ If you lend someone £20 and never see that person again, it was probably well worth it.
I purchased an Auto-Trail Apache 700SE 6 berth last year with 4 seat belts as per your Hobby. I looked and read about the safety issues and the arguments for and against. We had our third daughter in December and my preference was to add retro lap belts. My thoughts were if we had a collision or roll it would be safer to be strapped to a chair rather than rolling around the van. Very few suppliers seem to want to install these due to legal requirements and liability issues etc. I did find a company in Sheffield who fitted 2 lap belts on the rear facing seats for £235. This appeared to be a very professional job with a bespoke welded steel bracket bolted to the floor directly onto the chassis. The company that did the work specialize in Disable Vehicle modifications (Clark and Partners Ltd 0114 2293391 http://clarkandpartnersltd.co.uk). The work was guaranteed and insured.
Aubsheff,
Handy weblink and a good price for the work - did you get the number of belted seats updated on the V5 after this work? The reason I ask is a ferry company offering breakdown cover with the ticket told us that although legal for travelling unbelted in the event of a breakdown in Europe they only recover people equivelent to the number of belted seats in the vehicle. I can understand the reasons for this, but surely 6 people when only 4 seatbelts are provided would not be a huge problem but I do not want to test this out in the middle of France!!
I am in a similar situation to yourself and I want to get lap belts on the rear facing seats of my Swift Sundance 630L, would you be able to PM or post a digital snap of how the supporting steelwork looks - our water tank is under the seats where we want to put the lap belts and I was wondering how intrusive the supporting steelwork is and wether we would need to purchase a bespoke tank after the work is done.
Thought some people following this thread may be interested in this site.
http://www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk/advice/seatbelts.htm
Personally, I don't like lap seat belts as they do seem to fit very tightly over the abdominal area, although they should, according to the above site, be fitted over the hips. Interestingly, it is quoted that "lap and diagonal" belts should be used before lap-only belts.
I have taken some pics and will endeavor to forward these on.
Anne
As per your point about lap belts being to tight, on conversion initially auto tension belts were fitted which pull back once fitted. I agree with your point and these belts did become to tight on journeys sometime progressively getting tighter and not easy to release unless disconnecting seat belts and refitting again. Based on this we took the Van Back to the fitters and without fuss they fitted manual adjust belts(similar to areoplane belts). These are much better and more comfortable for the children.
Hi Aubsheff
We have recently purchased an Apache 700se and think that the extra seat belts are going to be a must. As predicted, The first thing our children asked was "Can ------ come with us"??
I know that I wouldn't want my kids to go in someone else's car without a belt and for that reason I think we will get lap belts fitted.
If you still have them, could you send me the photo's too of the work you had done.
Cheers, Adrian
email : mailthegingerprince@yahoo.co.uk
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Greece
