Belts protect rear passengers too
Use the fitted seat belt while travelling forward. This includes passengers in the rear, not only the driver and front passenger. The driver must ensure that occupants comply. An adult must use an available belt-equipped seat on the same row before occupying an unbelted seat.
Put the restraint on before moving and use it as intended. Sitting close to home, travelling slowly or holding a child does not replace a required restraint. A lap is not a child seat.
The manual’s child and adult categories
For these rules, the manual describes a child as a person aged three to fourteen, except that a person taller than 1.5 m is treated as an adult. A person older than fourteen is also an adult for the rule. The infant category below age three is addressed separately by the later amendment.
For the older child category, use an appropriate child restraint where one is available; if none is available, use an available seat belt. If no belt-equipped seat is available and the vehicle has a rear seat, the child must sit in the rear. This fallback does not remove the specific appropriate-restraint requirement for infants.
Infants under three need an appropriate restraint
The later infant rule requires the driver to ensure that a child below three years travels in an appropriate child restraint. Official provincial guidance records its enforcement from 1 May 2015. The 2012 manual predates this requirement and its omission must not be read as permission to carry an unrestrained infant.
The regulation states an exception for a minibus, midibus or bus operating for reward. The exception is tied to both vehicle class and operation: a private car or ordinary family journey is not brought within it by calling the passenger a customer.
Reversing and parking movements
The inspected regulation exempts the adult belt-wearing duty while reversing or moving in or out of a parking bay or area. This is a narrow manoeuvring exception, not permission to drive along the road unbelted after leaving the space. It must not be used as a blanket exemption from the separate child or infant restraint duties.
Worked situation
A two-year-old is travelling in a family car for a journey of only a few streets. An adult offers to hold the child in the back. The infant still needs an appropriate child restraint: neither the short distance nor the adult’s arms satisfies the rule.