Vehicle safety technology has certainly come a long way in recent years, helping to prevent a large number of accidents – not to mention injuries and deaths – even as numbers spiked during the pandemic. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) isn’t finished trying to improve those figures, however, and continues to explore new tech and potential rules that would mandate the use of said tech. The latest pertains to rear seat belt reminders, which will now be required in all new vehicles sold by 2027, the safety agency has announced.
The NHTSA has finalized a rule requiring warnings for rear seat belts and enhanced warnings for driver and front passenger seats, an action that’s aimed at increasing seat belt usage and preventing injuries and deaths. The NHTSA estimates that this new rule will prevent over 500 injuries and 50 deaths annually once it’s fully implemented, in fact. Automotive manufacturers must meet enhanced front seat belt warning requirements beginning in September 2026, while a rear seat belt warning system will be required starting in September 2027.
This final rule amends Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 208, “Occupant crash protection,” which requires that a seat belt warning is present – albeit, only for the driver’s seat. The new requirements apply to passenger cars, trucks, buses (with the exception of school buses), and multipurpose passenger vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating up to 10,000 pounds. According to NHTSA, rear seat belt usage has long trailed that of front seat passengers – 81.7 percent versus 91.6 percent in 2022 – and half of all auto crash deaths in that same year came from unbelted passengers. FoMoCo recently made changes to the seat belt reminders in the Ford Maverick, the Ford Expedition, and the Ford Escape as a result of this testing.
“Wearing a seat belt is one of the easiest and most effective ways to prevent injury and death in a vehicle crash,” said NHTSA Chief Counsel Adam Raviv. “While seat belt use has improved for decades, there’s still more we can do to make sure everyone buckles up. These new requirements will help to increase seat belt use, especially for rear seat passengers, by enhancing reminders for vehicle occupants to buckle up.”
Comments
The government needs to just get out of our lives and our vehicles. There better be an override for this ding ding ding ding ding ding. Rear seats are used differently than front seats. We put a lot of stuff on them which is going to trigger a sensor when nobody is actually sitting on the seats.
That is what I was thinking Dick. We have a 2024 Ford Edge ST and every time we get in, the warning comes on and we need to push ‘OK’ and it goes out. It does show if only one person is in the front seat, and which side.
I am going to put something heavy on one side and see what happens then, just like when people haul stuff in the rear seats. That is something that we do many times when we go to our son’s house at the lake.
What people really need to do, is be more attentive of the passengers, just like the warning that some vehicles have that tell you to check read seats for passenger when you turn it off.
I mean David.
I don’t need any new electronic feature to remind my rear passengers, because I AM THE REMINDER! I will not drive unless every rear passenger is buckled up. It is the Law locally.