Rear facing seatbelts

loobylou

Hi everyone,
Does anyone know what the legal situation in Ireland is as regards to rear facing seatbelts? Are they necessary or indeed safe? Do people generally travel with passengers facing backwards?
Also, maybe I should put this under a different thread but is there a list anywhere of make/models of motorhomes that come in over the 3000kg unladen weight threshhold?
Many thanks,
Ian

peasant

I have no idea what the legal situation is, somehow I even doubt that there IS a legal situation when it comes to campers. As they are not tested (no NCT, no DOE) who would enforce it?
The only people I could imagine would have something to say about it would be the insurance companies.

From a safety point of view it would of course make sense to have seatbelts fitted. The initial impact would be absorbed by the seatback, but there always is a rebound, without a belt you'd be flung back through the vehicle.


As for the second question, no, there is no such list as weights vary hugely between the different designs and makes.

If you have a C/C1 licence, you can play it safe and select a vehicle on a big chassis (Iveco, MB Vario, or anything with a twin rear axle), they usually come in over three tons. But if you have to stay under 3.5 tons GVW for licence reasons, then picking your vehicle gets very difficult as it is a thin line between having over three tons empty and under 3.5 with everyone and everything on board.

3ps

not sure really, but I have lap belts on the rear facing seats and high headrests.

Malta1

Same here......I sometimes lock a baby seat into it (manufacturer of seat indicates that it is ok to lock the particular seat with a lap belt)

loopymum

loobylou wrote:

Hi everyone,
Does anyone know what the legal situation in Ireland is as regards to rear facing seatbelts? Are they necessary or indeed safe? Do people generally travel with passengers facing backwards?

Well you are meant to have babies rear facing for as long as possible as their necks are not strong enough to withstand a crash if they were forward facing. So I would presume its perfectly safe for adults if not not safer. In alot of Scandinavian countries, small children are rearward facing till at least 4.

weeder

bought our motorhome recently, just back from a week around ireland

anyway one of the many salesmen that we spoke to told us rear facing belts are not needed and lap belts are only needed for side facing