Proposed rule to enforce safety belts for large commercial truck passengers

Officials from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) proposed a rule Wednesday to make all passengers of large commercial trucks buckle their safety belts.

This Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would effectively eliminate the safety gap for passengers who are traveling in commercial motor vehicles that carry property.

For many years, commercial drivers have had to buckle their safety belts due to 49 CFR 392.16, which is a federal rule.

The new proposed rule would add more responsibility to both commercial truck drivers as well as the trucking companies where they work. Now all parties involved must guarantee that all of the passengers who travel inside truck cabs buckle their seat belts.

Experts from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration used the latest data to estimate that 275 passengers who were traveling in large trucks died due to truck crashes in 2013 alone. These people died because they had not buckled their seat belts.

The U.S. Department of Transportation and its agencies have made safety one of its top priorities.