DETROIT (AP) — Starting in September of 2027, all new passenger vehicles in the U.S. will have to sound a warning if rear-seat passengers don't buckle up.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Monday that it finalized the rule, which also requires enhanced warnings when front seat belts aren't fastened.
The agency estimates that the new rule will save 50 lives per year and prevent 500 injuries when fully in effect, according to a statement.
The new rule will apply to passenger cars, trucks, buses except for school buses, and multipurpose vehicles weighing up to 10,000 pounds.
Before the rule, seat belt warnings were required only for the driver's seat. Under the new rule, outboard front-seat passengers also must get a warning if they don't fasten their belts. Front-center seats will not get a warning because NHTSA found that it wouldn't be cost effective. The agency said most vehicles already have warnings for the outboard passenger seats.
The rule also lengthens the duration of audio and visual warnings for the driver's seat. The front-seat rules are effective starting Sept. 1 of 2026.
Rear passengers consistently use seat belts at a lower rate than front passengers, the agency says. In 2022, front belt use was just under 92%, while rear use dropped to about 82%. About half of automobile passengers who died in crashes two years ago weren’t wearing belts, according to NHTSA data.
The seat belt rule is the second significant regulation to come from NHTSA in the past two months. In November the agency bolstered its five-star auto safety ratings to include driver assistance technologies and pedestrian protection.
Safety advocates want the Department of Transportation, which includes NHTSA, to finish several more rules before the end of the Biden administration, because President-elect Donald Trump has said he’s against new government regulations.
Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, urged the department to approve automatic emergency braking for heavy trucks and technology to prevent impaired driving.
FILE - A seat belt for the right front passenger seat is shown in a vehicle on Aug. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, file)
FILE - A seat belt warning sign for the right front passenger seat is displayed in a vehicle on Monday, Aug. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, file)
NEW YORK (AP) — Ingrid Lewis-Martin, a former top aide to New York Mayor Eric Adams, expects to be indicted on criminal charges related to alleged improper gifts, her lawyer said Monday.
Lewis-Martin abruptly resigned Sunday as Adams' chief adviser, the latest departure from an administration that has been enveloped in criminal investigations. The mayor’s office called it a planned retirement.
Lewis-Martin’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, told reporters at a news conference Monday that she had been invited to speak with the grand jury considering charges but declined because the outcome of the investigation appeared to be predetermined. He said they wanted the opportunity to clarify emails and text messages that could get taken out of context but are “easily explained away about what they mean.”
The case involves gifts given to Lewis-Martin, Aidala said, but he declined to discuss further details and claimed — without providing evidence — that the case was politically motivated.
“Pieces of puzzles are going to be put together to make it look as horrible as possible,” Aidala said as he sat alongside Lewis-Martin at his Manhattan office. “But we know the truth, and the truth is Ingrid Lewis-Martin never broke the law.”
Lewis-Martin said she has been "falsely accused of something; I don't know what it is.”
“And during my tenure, I have never taken any gifts, money, anything,” she said. “I have not made any arrangements in advance to take any gifts or money, or to have any gifts or money given to a family member or friend in order for me to do my job.”
Her decision to leave office comes as Adams faces federal corruption charges and several members of his administration have come under investigation. Adams himself has been charged with accepting luxury travel perks and illegal campaign contributions from a Turkish official and other foreign nationals looking to buy his influence. He has pleaded not guilty.
The federal investigation into Adams emerged in November 2023 after investigators searched the home of his top fundraiser, Brianna Suggs. Lewis-Martin has referred to Suggs as her goddaughter.
Aidala said he believed Manhattan prosecutors were targeting Martin to get her to cooperate against Adams. She would likely be indicted alongside others, he added, without specifying who else might face charges.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney’s office said in an email that it would be “inappropriate" to comment “because this Office acts with the utmost integrity."
Adams declined to comment on potential charges against Lewis-Martin at a news conference Monday afternoon.
Lewis-Martin’s phones were seized and her home was searched in late September by prosecutors in Manhattan who, along with federal prosecutors, met her at an airport in New York as she was getting off a flight from Japan.
Hours after the search, Lewis-Martin took the extraordinary step of appearing on Aidala’s radio show to discuss the investigation, telling her attorney, “I do believe that in the end that the New York City public will see that we have not done anything illegal to the magnitude or scale that requires the federal government and the DA’s office to investigate us.”
Lewis-Martin has been one of the mayor’s most trusted and longest-serving aides, working under Adams in prominent positions throughout his political career — when he was a state senator, Brooklyn borough president and mayor. She has said she first met Adams about four decades ago, when Adams and her husband, Glenn Martin, were in the New York City police academy.
The mayor's office released a written statement on Lewis-Martin's retirement in which Adams said, “Ingrid has not been just a friend, a confidant, and trusted advisor, but also a sister."
“We’ve always talked about when this day would come, and while we’ve long planned for it, it is still hard to know that Ingrid won’t be right next door every day,” Adams said in the statement.
Lewis-Martin, in the statement from City Hall, said that her time alongside Adams has been an “amazing ride” but that “now, today, the time has come for me to focus on my wonderful family and myself and retire.”
Izaguirre reported from Albany, N.Y.
Ingrid Lewis-Martin, who abruptly resigned Sunday as New York Mayor Eric Adams' chief adviser, and her attorney Arthur Aidala, spoke during a news conference, in New York, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Jake Offenhartz)
FILE — Ingrid Lewis-Martin, chief advisor to New York Mayor Eric Adams, speaks during a press conference at City Hall in New York, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie, File)
FILE — New York Mayor Eric Adams, and chief advisor to the mayor Ingrid Lewis-Martin, attend a press conference at City Hall, in New York, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie, File)
