Wearing a seat belt can save lives. But the implementation of the latest seat belt regulations leaves bus passengers confused.
From 25 January 2026, the Road Traffic (Safety Equipment) (Amendment) Regulation 2025 came into effect. One major change is the requirements for buses. Apart from the driver, passengers are now required to wear seat belts. Failure to comply is a criminal offence, the maximum penalty is a fine at level 2 ($5,000) and 3 months imprisonment.
It had been emphasised that “Driver or passenger must wear seat belts, if fitted.”
However, under the provisions, this is not an accurate legal position.
The new statutory requirements are set out under Road Traffic (Safety Equipment) Regulations (Cap 374F). Setting out both the requirements for the installation and use of seat belts in buses.
Regulation 8D requires passengers to wear seat belts:
8D. Passengers required to wear seat belts
Subject to the new Regulation 10, a person must not ride as a passenger in a passenger’s seat of a bus to which regulation 8AB applies on any road, unless the person is securely fastened to the seat by means of a seat belt, if any, provided for the seat.
However, the equally new Regulation 8AB is the provision that mandates the installation of passenger seat belts, which specifically confines to buses first registered after the law has become effective:
(4) This regulation—
(a) applies to every bus first registered on or after 25 January 2026…
This created two important issues:
- For existing buses.
Even if passenger seat belts have already been fitted to these buses, the new Regulations 8AB and 8D still do not apply. In other words, passengers on older buses are not legally required to wear a seat belt even when one is available. - Passengers will inevitably not know the bus’s registration details.
Ordinary passengers have no realistic way of knowing when the bus they are travelling on was first registered. This directly affects the mental element (mens rea) of the regulatory offence. Does a passenger need to know — or be taken to know — that the bus falls within the scope of the new regulations in order to commit the offence? If it is genuinely impossible for a passenger to ascertain this, does it create unacceptable uncertainty in criminal liability? These are questions that may need to be resolved in the future.
The phased implementation of the regulation, combined with the practical difficulty passengers face in determining whether the rule applies to the particular bus they are on, creates a rather curious enforcement and compliance conundrum.
Postscript
In the afternoon that this article had been published, the government announced that the current statutory provisions concerning bus seat belts will be abolished pending review and consultation.
Gordon Chan, Esq
Barrister-at-law, Archbold Hong Kong Editor on Public Health, and Member of the Bar Association's Committee on Criminal Law and Procedure. Specialised in medical, technology and criminal law.
