Do You Have to Wear a Seatbelt in the Back Seat in Alabama?

Yes, you have to wear a seatbelt in the back seat in Alabama. State law requires every occupant of a passenger car with factory-installed seatbelts to have one fastened whenever the vehicle is moving, no matter which row they’re sitting in.¹ The difference for backseat riders is how the rule gets enforced: for anyone in a seat other than the front, it’s a secondary offense, so an officer needs another reason to pull the car over before writing the ticket.

What the Statute Requires

Alabama Code Section 32-5B-4 covers every seating position in a passenger car. If the car came from the factory with belts, you use them. That’s the rule for the driver, the front passenger, and everyone in back.¹

Enforcement is where the front and back seats split. A front-seat violation is a primary offense, meaning police can stop the car for that alone. A backseat violation is a secondary offense. If the driver is obeying every traffic law, a trooper who spots an unbuckled rear passenger cannot use that as the basis for a stop. But once a lawful stop happens for something else, like speeding or a broken taillight, the unbuckled backseat passenger can be cited.

The Fine and Who Pays It

The ticket for an adult backseat passenger is $25. The passenger, not the driver, is responsible for the violation and pays the fine. Alabama does not attach the citation to the driver just because they were behind the wheel.¹

There’s one piece of relief here. A seatbelt conviction for an adult does not go on your driving record and adds no points to your license.² You pay the fine and it’s done.

Children in the Back Seat

Kids under 15 are governed by a separate and stricter statute, Section 32-5-222, which spells out what kind of restraint is required by age and weight:³

Birth to age 1 or 20 pounds: rear-facing infant seat, or a convertible seat in the rear-facing position.
Age 1 (or 20 pounds) up to age 5 (or 40 pounds): forward-facing car seat.
Age 5 to 6: booster seat.
Ages 6 through 14: standard seatbelt.

The driver is legally responsible for making sure every child in the vehicle is properly restrained, whether the child is in front or in back.³ The fine is also $25 per offense, but with children the driver takes the hit: one point on the driver’s record for a first offense, two points for each one after that. Those points feed into Alabama’s point system and can eventually cost someone their license.

Exemptions

Only a few narrow situations get you out of the seatbelt requirement:¹

A documented medical condition that makes wearing a belt impossible, backed by a written statement from a licensed physician.
Rural letter carriers for the U.S. Postal Service and people delivering newspapers or mail house to house, while actively making deliveries.
Passengers in vehicles with a model year before 1965.
Vehicles that normally operate in reverse, which covers specialized equipment rather than everyday cars.

General discomfort or preference doesn’t qualify. If you claim the medical exemption, you need an actual physician’s statement on hand.

Rideshare and Taxi Rides

The seatbelt rule applies in an Uber or Lyft the same way it applies in any other passenger car, and the adult passenger is the one on the hook for buckling up. One thing worth knowing if you have young kids: Alabama’s child restraint statute specifically exempts taxis and vehicles seating eleven or more, but that exemption does not extend to rideshare cars. Parents calling an Uber or Lyft still need to bring an appropriate car seat or booster.

What This Means If You’re in a Crash

Alabama has a rule that catches a lot of people off guard, and it works in an injured passenger’s favor. Section 32-5B-7 says failure to wear a seatbelt cannot be used as evidence of contributory negligence and cannot limit an insurer’s liability in an injury claim.²

That protection carries real weight in Alabama. The state follows a pure contributory negligence rule, so any fault on the plaintiff’s side can bar recovery altogether. Without Section 32-5B-7, an unbelted backseat passenger could see an otherwise solid claim wiped out because they weren’t buckled up. The statute takes seatbelt use off the table in civil cases. A parallel provision in the child restraint law does the same thing for kids: failure to use a required child restraint cannot be treated as contributory negligence either.³

The civil protection is not a reason to skip the belt. It just means an unbuckled passenger who gets hurt in a crash caused by someone else still has a claim worth pursuing.

1
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 32-5B-4 – Safety Belt Requirements for Occupants of Passenger Cars; Exemptions
2
Justia. Alabama Code 32-5B-7 – Failure to Wear Safety Belt; Not Evidence of Contributory Negligence
3
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 32-5-222 – Requirements for Child Passenger Restraints