When did seat belts become law in the US?

Seat belts became mandatory in the U.S. starting in the late 1960s. The first state to enact a mandatory seat belt law was New York in 1984. Over the following decades, other states adopted similar laws, and by the early 2000s, most states had implemented regulations requiring seat belt use for drivers and passengers. The push for these laws was driven by safety studies highlighting the effectiveness of seat belts in reducing injuries and fatalities in car accidents.