The Uniform Safety Belt Standard requires all drivers and passengers in a vehicle to wear safety belts meeting federal motor vehicle safety standards. These include applying safety belt laws to all occupants of motor vehicles on the streets, roads, and highways of the state. Each driver of a vehicle must have a safety belt that meets the federal motor vehicle safety standards properly applied to his body at all times while operating a vehicle. Every occupant of a motor vehicle will have a safety device properly applied to his body at all times while the vehicle is in operation. The driver must make sure all passengers and children twelve years old and younger are in rear seats with safety restraints. The driver is not allowed to operate a vehicle unless every occupant is secured in a safety belt restraint.
There are some exemptions to the Uniform Safety Belt Standard. The provisions do not apply to people with a physically disability condition that prevents appropriate restraints in safety belts. This law also does not apply to vehicles make prior to December 31, 1967 that has no safety belts. Lastly, passenger vehicles that are not required to have safety belts do not have to follow the law provisions.
The Illinois Safety Belt Law has some of the same provisions with the Uniform Law, but is also have its differences. The Illinois law requires everyone in the front seat of a motor vehicle to wear safety belts, where the Uniform law requires everyone in the vehicle, front or rear seats, to wear a safety belt. According to the Illinois law, it is the driver's job to make sure all front seat passengers are secured properly in a safety belt. All back seat passengers, under the age of 18, must be secured in a safety device. One who violates this law, and it caught by authorities, must pay a fine of no more than $75. The penalty for not following the Uniform law is a fine of no less than $25 and no more than $50.
