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§ 66-7-372 NMSA 1978

Safety belt use required; exception

Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Waterson v. General Motors Corp. (1988)

Most recently applied in 561 F. App'x 738 - United States v. Barela (April 2014)

Laws 1985, ch. 131, § 3; 1989, ch. 317, § 1; 2001, ch. 191, § 1.

How often courts cite this section

1988199020002010201410
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

A. Except as provided by Section 66-7-369 NMSA 1978 and in Subsection B of this section, each occupant of a motor vehicle having a gross vehicle weight of ten thousand pounds or less manufactured with safety belts in compliance with federal motor vehicle safety standard number 208 shall have a safety belt properly fastened about his body at all times when the vehicle is in motion on any street or highway.

B. This section shall not apply to an occupant of a motor vehicle having a gross vehicle weight of ten thousand pounds or less who possesses a written statement from a licensed physician that he is unable for medical reasons to wear a safety belt or to a rural letter carrier of the United States postal service while performing the duties of a rural letter carrier.

Official source: NMOneSource (New Mexico Compilation Commission). Reproduced from public-domain New Mexico statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.