Seatbelts, Child Restraints and Alcohol

The numbers

Adult

Older than 14, or 1,5 metres or tallerRegulation 213(1)(a)

Child

Between 3 and 14, unless already taller than 1,5 metresRegulation 213(1)(b)

Infant

Below 3 years old — must be in an appropriate child restraintRegulation 213(1)(c) and (6A), added 2014

Blood alcohol limit, ordinary driver

0,05 g per 100 mLSection 65(2) of the Act

Blood alcohol limit, professional driver

0,02 g per 100 mLSection 65(2), for a holder of a professional driving permit

Breath alcohol limit, ordinary driver

0,24 mg per 1 000 mLSection 65(5) of the Act

Breath alcohol limit, professional driver

0,10 mg per 1 000 mLSection 65(5), for a holder of a professional driving permit

Seatbelts: it's on the driver, not just the passenger

Regulation 213(4) makes wearing a seatbelt the passenger's own duty where one is fitted, with an exception only while reversing or moving in or out of a parking bay. But regulation 213(11) puts a second duty on the driver directly: you must ensure that everyone travelling in your vehicle wears a seatbelt as the regulation requires. If a passenger isn't belted, that's not only their problem.

Where a row of seats isn't fitted with belts at all, an adult may sit there — but only once every belted seat on that row is already taken. The rule exists so nobody is sent to an unbelted seat while a belted one sits empty.

A child needs a restraint, not just a smaller seatbelt

Regulation 213(6) requires the driver to make sure a child uses an appropriate child restraint if one is available in the vehicle, and only lets a seatbelt substitute for it when no restraint is available and an unoccupied belted seat is. If no belted seat exists at all, the child must be seated in the rear if the vehicle has a rear seat.

That's the rule for a child aged three to fourteen. Since the 2014 amendment to regulation 213, an infant — below three years old — has a stricter rule again: subregulation (6A) requires the driver to ensure an infant travels in an appropriate child restraint, full stop, not merely offer one as the better option. The one exception is a minibus, midibus or bus operating for reward, where the requirement doesn't apply.

The alcohol limits, and why "under 0,05" isn't the whole story

Section 65 of the National Road Traffic Act sets two separate offences with two separate ways of measuring them. Driving, or sitting in the driver's seat with the engine running, while your blood alcohol concentration is 0,05 grams per 100 millilitres or more is an offence under section 65(2). Doing the same with a breath reading of 0,24 milligrams per 1 000 millilitres or more is a separate offence under section 65(5).

A professional driver — the holder of a professional driving permit under section 32, the category that covers most bus, taxi and truck drivers carrying passengers or goods for reward — is held to roughly a fifth of that ceiling: 0,02 grams per 100 millilitres of blood, or 0,10 milligrams per 1 000 millilitres of breath. The permit that lets someone drive that vehicle for a living is what triggers the stricter limit, not the vehicle alone.

Section 65(1) covers what the number-based offences don't: driving, or occupying the driver's seat with the engine running, while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or a drug with a narcotic effect. That offence needs no reading at all — impairment is enough on its own.

Common questions