An Overview of Texas Safety Belt Laws

In 2006, almost 3,500 Texans died in car accidents. This number has been steadily declining since 2002. Much of the decline has been due to the Texas Department of Transportation’s Buckle-Up Texas program, which has been raising driver awareness about car crashes and the importance of wearing your seatbelt.

Since Texas’s safety belt laws went into effect in 1985, the state’s safety belt usage has climbed to 90.44%. Each percentage point that it continues to climb means an estimated 25 fewer deaths and 580 fewer injuries per year.

Buckling up is especially important in Texas, where one in four vehicles is a pickup truck. According to the National Center for Statistics and Analysis, pickup trucks in fatal crashes are twice as likely to roll over as passenger cars. But, wearing a safety belt reduces the risk of fatality in a rollover by as much as 80%.

All drivers and passengers in the front seat of a vehicle must wear a seatbelt. Failure to do so results in a $25-$50 fine. Texas is a “primary enforcement state,” which means that police officers may pull you over simply for not wearing a seatbelt. In “secondary enforcement states,” the officer must have probable cause to believe that you violated some other traffic law before pulling you over.

All children under the age of 17 must be secured by a safety belt or ride in a child safety seat.

In Texas, all passengers under the age of five or less then 36 inches tall must ride in a safety seat that has been approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The fine for carrying a young passenger who is not restrained is $100-200.

Child passengers under the age of 12 should ride in the back seat because of the risk of death that airbag deployment poses. Airbags can inflate at a rate of 200 mph. All passengers should be at least 10 inches from the airbag in order to provide a safe area of deployment.

In 2007, NHTSA rated all child safety and booster seats based on ease of use.