Passenger Failing To Wear Seat Belt - Dispute?
This may be old hat for a lot of you, but I think it bears repeating:
613 sect. 10 (b) states "a passenger is exempt from the requirement of subsection 106 (3) of the Act to wear a seat belt assembly if the passenger occupies a position without a seat belt assembly and there is no other available seating position with a seat belt assembly;"
and Section 106 of the Highway Traffic Act states:
"106. (1) No person shall drive on a highway a motor vehicle in which a seat belt assembly required under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act (Canada) at the time that the vehicle was manufactured or imported into Canada has been removed, rendered partly or wholly inoperative, modified so as to reduce its effectiveness or is not operating properly through lack of maintenance."
Now, if a person were travelling on a county road in Ontario as a passenger in a car; which before entering they were unaware of: a middle seat belt that has been rendered inoperative by an animal chewing it at an unknown time and sit in this seat, as all other positions have been filled. Are they responsible for the inability to buckle up? Also, once receiving a ticket for "fail to properly wear seatbelt" is there any grounds for disputing the ticket?
What do you think?