Safety Belts
Sir,—Some months ago I noted that a car-owner was prosecuted for not having safety belts fitted to his car. Since then I have seen a number of new cars with temporary registration plates being driven from Lyttelton to Christchurch, and a few of these cars were not fitted with safety belts. Although 1 am not conversant witl. regulations controlling temporary registration plates I would presume that any new car on the road with registration plates (whether temporary or permanent) has been, technically speaking, registered 7 after 1965 and therefore should be fitted with safety belts. I have raised this point because 1 feel that all new cars should be sold with accessories, demanded by traffic regulations, already fitted.—Yours, etc., J. ILLINGWORTH.
April 9. 1968. [The district officer of the Transport Department (Mr D. L. Hogan) replies: “The responsibility for fitting seat belts is on the owner when the vehicle is first registered. New cars which carry ‘D’ plates have not yet been registered and hence seat belts do not have to be fitted at that stage. The reason for not requiring new cars to be fitted with seat belts before they are registered is to enable the purchaser to exercise his choice as to the type of seat belt he requires.”]
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19680418.2.95
Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31657, 18 April 1968, Page 8
Word Count
213Safety Belts Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31657, 18 April 1968, Page 8
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.