Q: This week we have a couple questions about kids in vintage cars: I have a 1939 Packard, which of course has no seatbelts. I’d like to be able to give my grandkids a ride in the car but without seatbelts I can’t install a carseat. Is it legal to let a child under 12 ride in a car without seatbelts?
Summer is here and the grandkids want to ride with me in my convertible 1964 Mustang. The car is factory complete with four lap only seat belts. I have three grandchildren all in booster seats. What is the law regarding the four of us going for a ride? With only two lap belts in the back seat, can one of them ride in the front seat?
A: When the weather gets nice, the vintage automobiles come out. And who owns vintage automobiles? Grandpas, mostly. I don’t have any hard data to prove that, but I have been to car shows and let me tell you, if the car was built before 1970, it’s probably owned by a grandpa.
As cool as they are, old cars didn’t get much engineering in the safety department. Manufacturers weren’t required to install seatbelts until 1964, and those were just lap belts for the front seats. I don’t know what the thinking was on that decision; keep the adults up front safe while we let the kids bounce around in the back? By 1968 the legislators corrected their oversight and required seatbelts for all seating positions and added shoulder harnesses for the front seats.
If you have a car from the pre-seatbelt era or the lap belts only era, how do you legally transport kids? Based on a reading of Washington’s seatbelt and car seat laws, I think I can deduce an overriding philosophy: do the best you can with what you’ve got. To explain, I’ll review the general rules about seatbelts and child passenger restraints and then consider what to do if you can’t make your car comply with those rules.
Vehicle occupant restraint laws are found in two sections in the Revised Code of Washington (RCW). One section is for occupants sixteen and older; the other is for passengers under the age of sixteen. Both of these questions can be answered from the section on passengers under age sixteen, but before we get to that, let’s start the requirements for those sixteen and older.
We know that we’re all required to wear a seatbelt “in a properly adjusted and securely fastened manner.” (That means using the shoulder belt instead of tucking it behind you.) But if a car doesn’t have enough (or any) seatbelts for all the occupants in the car, there is an exception to the law. The RCW states that it only applies to vehicles that meet the safety belt standards set in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). As important as the CFR is in setting safety standards, I wouldn’t recommend reading it unless you are attempting to be rendered unconscious from boredom. Simply explained, if your car was built prior to a specific seat belt requirement, you’re not obligated to comply with that requirement. If your car never had seat belts, you won’t get in trouble for not using something that was never there.
Now for the kids. First let’s review the general rules: All kids are required to be properly secured in the car. For kids under age eight or shorter than four feet nine inches, that means a car seat or booster seat. Kids under the age of 13 ride in the back seat.
If we stopped there, it would seem illegal to transport kids in a vehicle without seat belts or in the front seat of the car. However, like the law for adults, the law for children has some exceptions, beginning by stating that child passenger restrain rules don’t apply in situations where the car isn’t required to have seatbelts. In the case of the 1939 Packard, the kids can legally ride with grandpa without car seats or seatbelts. Mom and dad might have a different perspective, but you’re okay with the law.
For the owner of the 1964 Mustang, there’s an addendum to the rule about kids riding in the back seat. It adds, “where it is practical to do so.” When you already have two kids in booster seats car seats secured by the two back seatbelts, it would be impractical to try to put another kid back there when there’s an available seatbelt up front. You can put all three grandkids in the car with you, properly secured in their booster seats, car seats without putting yourself in jeopardy of getting in trouble with the law. (Correction: the original article stated that booster seats could be used with lap belts. Apparently no manufacturer makes a booster seat that can be used only with a lap belt, and since you’re required to use a car seat or booster seat according to manufacturer requirements, booster seats with lap belts are not legal.)
Now that we’ve looked at the legality of having kids riding in the front seat or without seatbelts, let’s acknowledge that while legal, it’s not ideal. I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t give your grandkids a ride; just that it’s important to consider the risks and how you can mitigate them. The best way is with your driving. I’m a habitual (some might say compulsive) seatbelt wearer, but I don’t depend on it to keep me safe. For that I rely on my driving. Safe driving strategies decrease the likelihood that you’ll ever need to depend on the safety features of your car. If your car doesn’t have safety features, your driving becomes exponentially more important.