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New driving offences to focus on seat belts for children
New driving offences for people who fail to use seatbelts or the correct restraints on childr...

New driving offences to focus on seat belts for children
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class="MsoNormal">New driving offences for people who fail to use seatbelts or the correct restraints on children in cars will come into effect this weekend.
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class="MsoNormal">Drivers will be penalised for putting their child in the front of a car in a rear facing seat and if they do not have their child in “an appropriate child restraint” such as a child or booster seat.
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class="MsoNormal">In addition there are new offences for bus and truck drivers too for failing to wear a seatbelt and for having an overweight truck.
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class="MsoNormal">55 people have lost their lives on August Bank holiday weekends since 2000.
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class="MsoNormal">Transport Minister Leo Varadkar is reminding all road users – in cars, on bikes and on foot – to take care in the coming days.
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class="MsoNormal">“Shocking as it may sound there are still motorists who permit children under 3 to travel without being properly restrained” he said.
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class="MsoNormal">“Failing to wear a seatbelt or allowing a passenger to travel unrestrained is a breach of the law and you risk a fine and penalty points on your licence which will remain in place for 3 years” he added.
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class="MsoNormal">Statistics released by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) earlier this month have shown that in the first 6 months of this year 23% of drivers killed and 29% of passengers killed were not wearing seatbelts.
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class="MsoNormal">It says a particularly worrying feature was the number of people not wearing a seatbelt who were ejected from the vehicle.
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class="MsoNormal">Conor Faughnan is from the AA Roadwatch.
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class="MsoNormal">He says people who fail to make their children wear seatbelts now face severe punishment.
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