AN ACT to provide an exemption from the requirement that a backseat passenger wear a seat belt while being transported by a law enforcement officer.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 20‑135.2A(c) reads as rewritten:
"(c)	This section shall not apply to any of the following:
(1)	A driver or occupant of a noncommercial motor vehicle with a medical or physical condition that prevents appropriate restraint by a safety belt or with a professionally certified mental phobia against the wearing of vehicle restraints.
(2)	A motor vehicle operated by a rural letter carrier of the United States Postal Service while performing duties as a rural letter carrier and a motor vehicle operated by a newspaper delivery person while actually engaged in delivery of newspapers along the person's specified route.
(3)	A driver or passenger frequently stopping and leaving the vehicle or delivering property from the vehicle if the speed of the vehicle between stops does not exceed 20 miles per hour.
(4)	Any vehicle registered and licensed as a property‑carrying vehicle in accordance with G.S. 20‑88, while being used for agricultural purposes in intrastate commerce.
(5)	A motor vehicle not required to be equipped with seat safety belts under federal law.
(6)	Any occupant of a motor home, as defined in G.S. 20‑4.01(27)d2, other than the driver and front seat passengers.
(7)	Any occupant, while in the custody of a law enforcement officer, being transported in the backseat of a law enforcement vehicle."

SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 16th day of July, 2007.

	s/	 Marc Basnight
	 President Pro Tempore of the Senate

	s/	 Joe Hackney
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	s/	 Michael F. Easley
	 Governor

Approved 2:31 p.m. this 27th day of July, 2007