Different seat belt rules for children in taxis

CHILDREN under four years of age can be carried without seat belts in the rear of taxis — and yet the drivers will not be prosecuted or incur penalty points.

It has emerged that the new penalty point regulations on seat belts do not apply to taxi drivers in the same way they do to other motorists, the National Taxi Drivers Union and the Department of Transport confirmed yesterday.

Taxi drivers cannot refuse, on the basis that they may receive penalty points, to carry toddlers who are not restrained in baby seats.

The new penalty points rules only apply to children under 17 years of age ‘in so far as is reasonably practicable’, union vice-president Vinnie Kearns said.

If, for instance, a couple with two children sit into the back seat of a taxi, it is up to the couple, under law, to decide who is strapped in and who wears any one of the three seat belts provided.

The driver can not be penalised, just because one passenger in such an instance is not strapped in.

Neither are taxi drivers obliged to carry restraints for children under four years of age.

The Department of Transport defended the ruling, saying that taxis carry so many passengers, it would just not be practical to oblige them to carry baby restraints.

But a spokesperson for the department added that if a number of persons under 17 are being carried in a taxi and there are adequate numbers of seat belts fitted to secure them, they must, under law, belt up, or the driver faces the threat of penalty points.

The National Safety Council said the exemption would not have been made, without a lot of thought.

“There are difficulties in fitting taxis with all the necessary restraints. We would hope that everyone would wear a belt, where possible. These exemptions are only made following a lot of consultation and debate,” said NSC chief executive Pat Costello.

The taxi drivers union, which represents 4,300 drivers nation-wide, said confusion is rife and its members really don’t know where they stand.

“Absolutely nothing has changed where taxi drivers are concerned since the first day of January 1993. The very same rules apply.

“PSV licence holders are exempt from wearing seat belts themselves and taxi drivers are not obliged to provide child seats,” Mr Kearns said.