OHTA.ca

Hello Folks,

I have a couple of quick questions for you which I am hoping someone can help with the answers, so here we go.

I currently deliver catered food to several daycares within the Niagara Region. I was on my regular scheduled delivery route and was traveling from once school to the next. Upon my last delivery, I shut the door and put my seat belt on but could only put it under my armpit as I found when I pulled away, it was caught in the door. My next scheduled route was several blocks away from the school and upon arrival at the next delivery, I was going to make the necessary adjustments to the seat belt to correct the problem.

The unfortunate part is while traveling onto my next stop there was some officer's standing at the four way stop checking for seat belts as it was a seat belt blitz. The officer yelled at me to pull over and I did so and she waived my over to the other side of the road to tell me that I wasn't wearing a seat belt. Now according to the highway traffic act Section 106 Exception #6 subsection (c) it states that who is actually engaged in work which required him or her to alight from and re-enter the motor vehicle at frequent intervals and the motor vehicle does not travel at a speed of 40 km/hr is exempt from seat belt wearing.

Would this apply in my case since I am approx. 300 meters away from the drop off point at the next school. For the record, I did not exceed 40km from my previous stop to the next stop before the seat belt blitz area.

If anyone can provide any insight, that would be great...

Thanks in advance,

HQS

I don't think you would be successful with this argument. The exemption is not for any delivery driver to claim that they don't go over 40 and thus don't have to wear their seat belt. It is intended to protect people who have professions where it is already established that they don't go over 40, like garbage men or postal delivery drivers.

That being said, you could always try it and see what the JP thinks. But I would read the exemption more as "professions where you can't go over 40 and still do your job", like the examples I illustrated above. The fact that you claim you didn't go over 40 doesn't entitle you to the exemption.

At least that's the way I interpret the section.