Costa Rica has made seat belt use mandatory in a victory for road safety campaigners. The approval of a law reintroducing compulsory seat belt use was announced by the country’s Vice Minister for Transport, Karla Gonzalez, during a debate on road safety at the UN General Assembly in New York. The new legislation, which had been subject to review by the country’s constitutional court, comes six months after the launch of a seat belt awareness campaign backed by the FIA Foundation and a parallel political campaign for support for seat belt use in Costa Rica’s parliament. The UN debate, which approved a groundbreaking resolution on road safety (see above) also heard from ministers of countries including the US, Ireland (representing the EU), Russia, China, Egypt India, Saudi Arabia and Japan.