Getting ready to drive

Seatbelts and child car seats, adjusting your seat and mirrors, and making sure you and your vehicle are fit to drive.

Getting ready to drive

• Use low beams when you are less than 60 m behind another vehicle (unless you are passing), because high beams in its mirrors cause glare.
• The driver must make sure every passenger under 16 is properly secured in a seatbelt, child car seat or booster seat.
• Airbags are designed to work with seatbelts, not instead of them. Always buckle up, even with an active airbag.
• Never use a booster seat with a lap belt alone. In a seat with only a lap belt, secure the child with the lap belt without a booster.
• Headlights are required from one-half hour before sunset to one-half hour after sunrise, and at any other time when light is poor.
• Infants under 9 kg must ride in a rear-facing child car seat, best placed in the back seat and never in front of an active airbag.
• Headlights are required whenever poor light keeps you from clearly seeing people or vehicles less than 150 m away.
• Booster seats are for children who have outgrown a forward-facing seat, are under 8, weigh 18 to 36 kg and are under 145 cm tall.
• A child can use a seatbelt alone after turning 8, or reaching 36 kg (80 lb), or 145 cm (4 ft 9 in), as long as the belt fits properly.
• A forward-facing child seat is secured with the seatbelt or UAS strap and its tether strap hooked to the vehicle's tether anchor. Check both the seat and vehicle manuals.
• Press the seat down with your knee and tighten the belt or UAS strap. At the belt path, the seat should move no more than 2.5 cm (1 inch).
• Parking lights are only for parking. In low light, turn on your headlights so you can see and be seen.
• An inflating airbag can seriously injure a child in a rear-facing seat. The back seat is the best place for it.
• Do not use a seat that has been in a collision, is damaged, is under recall, is missing parts or instructions, or is past the manufacturer's useful life.
• Each person needs their own seatbelt or child seat. One belt cannot properly hold two people in a crash.
• Riding in a pickup truck box or a towed trailer is unsafe. Passengers belong inside the vehicle, buckled in.
• Warning lights should come on when you start the engine and then go out. One that stays on, or comes on while driving, can signal a serious problem.
• Daytime running lights are only for good light. They may leave your tail lights off, so turn on your full headlights when light is poor.

Seatbelt safety

• Pregnant women should wear both the lap and shoulder belt, sit upright, and keep the lap belt low on the hips, pulling on the pelvic bones rather than the stomach.

Read this part of the official handbook on Ontario.ca →