The Department of Transportation is proposing new rules designed to encourage seatbelt use by car and truck passengers, including those sitting in the back seat.

The new rules proposed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would require manufacturers to equip vehicles with additional seat belt warning systems for the right front passenger and for rear seats to encourage increased seat belt use.

“Wearing a seatbelt is one of the most effective ways to prevent injury and death in a crash,” NHTSA Acting Administrator Ann Carlson said in a statement. “In 2021, almost 43,000 people lost their lives on America’s roads, and half of those in vehicles were unbelted. This proposed rule can help reduce that number by getting more to buckle up.”

The proposed rules would establish a visual and audio warning for the right front passenger seat that would continue until both the driver and front passenger seats have their belts buckled. For the rear seats, the rules establish a visual notice lasting at least 60 seconds of the rear seatbelt status when the vehicle is started, plus an audio warning if a rear seatbelt is unbuckled while the vehicle is in operation.

The current rules require such visual and audio warnings only for the driver’s seat, but not for other seating positions.

The NHTSA estimates that the proposed requirements would prevent approximately 300 non-fatal injuries and over 100 fatalities annually. They would apply to passenger cars, trucks, most buses and multipurpose passenger vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or less.

According to NHTSA statistics, seatbelts reduce the risk of fatality by 55 percent for rear seat occupants in passenger cars and 74 percent for light trucks and vans. For front seat occupants, seat belts reduce the risk of fatality by 44 percent for passenger cars and 63 percent to 73 percent for light trucks and vans.

David Harkey, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), embraced the proposed rules.

“Strong seatbelt reminders are an important component of the Safe System approach to transportation, and we welcome NHTSA’s proposed upgrade to the standard,” Harkey said. “The small minority of drivers and passengers who fail to use this basic piece of safety equipment account for nearly half of crash fatalities, and our research has shown that if all vehicles had persistent reminders to buckle up, it would save about 1,500 lives a year.”

According to the IIHS, current regulations specify seatbelt reminders must include an audible signal that lasts for 4-8 seconds total and a visual alert that lasts at least 60 seconds whenever the driver’s seat belt is unbuckled. Such short reminders are easy to ignore. Meanwhile, there is no belt reminder requirement for passengers.

IIHS took note of the inadequate regulation and began publishing ratings of belt reminder systems in 2022. The program has already spurred automakers to make improvements. Less than 10 percent of vehicles earned a good rating when the program began. Now, about two-thirds of vehicles recently evaluated are rated good.

“NHTSA’s proposed requirements for front and rear reminders are in many ways consistent with our own criteria for a good rating. We would like to see the agency add volume and fundamental frequency requirements to make sure auditory reminders are easy to hear above other noise in the vehicle,” Harkey said. “We also think NHTSA’s proposed implementation delays of at least one year for the front seat and two years for rear seats are unnecessary. Manufacturers have already shown they can make these improvements quickly in response to our ratings.”

The proposed changes were first publicly floated in 2019. The NHTSA will be taking public comment on the proposed rule for the next 60 days.