Correctly worn safety belts have been demonstrated to be extremely effective in mitigating occupant injury in a wide variety of impact scenarios and, for this reason, safety belts form a fundamental part of the occupant protection system in all modern motor vehicles. However, the "real world" occupant protection benefits of safety belts can only be gained if the safety belts are used and, although most countries around the world legally mandate the wearing of safety belts, safety belt usage rates are still well below 100% in some regions.
Safety belt reminders are designed to encourage the use of safety belts, providing visual and/or audible signals to remind occupants to fasten their safety belts. The fitment of such systems has been mandatory in the USA and some other countries for many years and, although not mandated in Europe, the Euro NCAP assessment criteria allocates additional points to vehicles equipped with such systems.
The United Nations ECE organisation have also recognised the potential safety benefits of safety belt reminders and, in the long term, would like to see safety belt reminders fitted to all seating positions in all categories of motor vehicle. As a first step in working towards this long term goal, the United Nations ECE have recently published the 05 series of amendments to ECE 16 on safety belts and restraint systems, which requires the mandatory fitment of a safety belt reminder to the driver's seating position in all M1 category vehicles (i.e. passenger vehicles with less than 10 seats). ECE 16.05 also introduces requirements for safety belt reminder systems themselves, specifying that the system must have two levels of alert: the first level consisting of a visual signal, with an optional audible signal, and the second level consisting of both a visual and an audible signal.
The implementation dates for ECE 16.05, and hence the dates from which the fitment of a safety belt reminder to the driver's seating position in M1 category vehicles becomes mandatory, are 3rd August 2009 for new types of vehicle and 3rd February 2014 for all new vehicles.