Seat belts mandatory for all seated in vehicle from Sept 5

Police will begin enforcing the new traffic law requiring everyone in a vehicle to wear a seat belt from early next month.

Pol Maj Gen Jirasant Kaeosaeng-ek, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said on Thursday the  amended Land Traffic Act would be effective from Sept 5. It  requires all people occupying vehicle seats to wear seat belts.

Initially, police would issue warnings to those failing to comply, to make the requirement more widely known. Strict enforcement would follow, he said.

Failing to wear a seat belt carries a maximum fine of 2,000 baht. 

Passenger cars first registered before Jan 1, 1988, and pickup trucks first registered before Jan 1, 1994, will be spared. They were built before the Land Transport Department officially campaigned for seat belt installation in those kinds of vehicles, Pol Maj Gen Jirasant said.

He was not sure if the child-seat mandate under the amended law would also be applied on Sept 5.

Details relating to child-seats and alternative safety measures for children aged 6 years and under in  vehicles had yet to be finalised, he said.