What Year Were Shoulder Belts Mandatory?
What Year Were Shoulder Belts Mandatory? At the time, only 14 percent of Americans regularly wore seat belts, even though the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) required lap and shoulder belts in all new cars starting in 1968. What year did shoulder belts come out? Bohlin invented the one-piece, three-point lap/shoulder belt in 1958.