• Buckle your seat belt in South Dakota.seat belt receptacle image by Albert Lozano from Fotolia.com
  
  Most drivers in the United States are aware of the "click it or ticket" campaign started by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2000. This program aims to inform and remind drivers to wear their seat belts or face fines. Even though all 50 states have seat belt laws, every state has different rules. South Dakota enforces the following seat belt regulations.
  
  

Basic Seat Belt Law

• In South Dakota, drivers and front-seat passengers of passenger vehicles are required to wear safety belts. To comply with this law, seat belts must be worn the way the manufacturer intended, and they should not be placed under the arm, behind the back or improperly adjusted or fastened. This law does not apply if the vehicle is not in forward motion.
  
  

Child Passenger Restraints:

• Children under the age of five must be secured in a child passenger restraint system. If the child is under the age of five but weighs at least 40 pounds and is secured by a seat belt, then this section of the law has been satisfied. The driver is responsible for ensuring that children under the age of 18 are properly restrained. The only exception to this provision is for cars manufactured before 1966 because they were built without seat belts.
  
  

Exceptions

• South Dakota's basic safety belt law has some exceptions. Drivers and adult passengers in vehicles manufactured prior to September 1, 1973 are exempt from wearing a safety belt. People with a written doctor's note that explains a medical condition that requires non-use of a safety belt are excused from this law. If federal law did not require a vehicle to be equipped with passenger safety belts when the vehicle was made, then passengers in that vehicle are not required to wear safety belts. Other exceptions are made for United States Postal Service rural mail carriers who are delivering mail and for people who transport periodicals or newspapers on a home delivery route.
  
  

Consequences of the Seat Belt Law

• As of July 1, 2008, the fine for not wearing a seat belt in South Dakota is $25. Although this amount may seem small, the South Dakota Department of Public Safety maintains that those involved in a crash who are not wearing seat belts face far greater consequences because the chances of being hurt or killed increase for those not seat belted. According to the South Dakota Department of Public Safety, safety belt use has increased 75 percent since the law has gone into effect.