From the
Florida Driver License Manual: (Bolding and Red were added by me so you could find the applicable portion of the law easier.)
Safety Belts
Florida law requires all occupants of cars, pickup trucks, and vans who are 6 years of age or older to wear seat belts, regardless of seating position. Passengers 16 and older can be fined individually for violating this provision. Drivers will be held responsible and fined for passengers 15 years old and younger who are found unrestrained. Children infant through 3 years of age must be properly secured using a crash-tested, federally approved child restraint device. Such restraint device must be a separate carrier or a vehicle manufacturer's integrated child seat. For children aged 4 through 5 years, a separate carrier, an integrated child seat, or a seat belt may be used. This seat belt law applies to passenger cars manufactured beginning with the 1968 model year, and trucks beginning with the 1972 model year.
The law exempts the following from the seat belt requirements:
Any person certified by a physician as having a medical condition that causes the seat belt use to be inappropriate or dangerous.
Employee of a newspaper home delivery service while delivering newspapers on home delivery routes.
School buses.
Buses used for transportation of persons for compensation.
Farm equipment.
Trucks of a net weight of more than 5,000 pounds.
Motorcycle, moped or bicycle.
In a crash, you are far more likely to be killed if you are not wearing a safety belt. Wearing shoulder belts and lap belts make your chances of living through a crash twice as good.
In a crash, safety belts:
Keep you from being thrown from the vehicle. The risk of death is five times greater if you are thrown from a vehicle in a crash.
Keep you from being thrown against parts of your vehicle, such as the steering wheel or windshield.
Keep you from being thrown against others in the vehicle.
Keep the driver behind the wheel, where he or she can control the vehicle.
SAFETY BELTS SAVE LIVES!
Wear lap belts around your hips, not your stomach. Fasten them snugly. Wear a shoulder belt only with a lap belt. Don't just use your safety belt for long trips or high-speed highways. More than half of the crashes that cause injury or death happen:
at speeds less than 40 mph, and
within 25 miles of home.
Protecting Children
THE LAW: ALL CHILDREN 5 YEARS OLD OR YOUNGER MUST USE A RESTRAINT DEVICE WHEN RIDING IN A MOTOR VEHICLE.
The number one killer of young children in the United States is traffic crashes in which children were not restrained at all. Over 90 percent of the deaths and 80 percent of the injuries in car crashes could be prevented by using crash-tested child restraints.
Children should be secured in the rear seat. Never secure a child in the fron passenger side, especially if your vehicle has an air bag.
The law requires every driver to secure children five years of age or younger in child restraint devices riding in a passenger car, van, or pick-up truck, regardless of whether the vehicle is registered in this state. Infant carriers or children's car seats must be used for children three years old and younger. Children's car seats or safety belts may be used for four- and five-year-olds.
All infant carriers and car seats must be crash-tested and approved by the U.S. Government.
Children being carried or riding bicycles should wear properly fitted bicycle helmets.
What is the Best Child Seat?
The one that fits your child.
The one that fits your vehicle.
The one that you will use correctly every time.
For more information on the best child seat, please visit:
http://www.fhp.state.fl.us/html/CPS and obtain information on Occupent Protection & Child Passenger Safety News.
