Posted: Thu May 6, 2021 5:52pm
In the UK, this is what would be called 'an absolute offence' - the offence is committed simply by the act of not wearing the seatbelt, with the only defence being the possession of a medical certificate of exemption. An absolute offence cannot successfully be challenged. The option would then be to contend that the punishment is excessive. However, as the level of punishment is set in the law, then this would fail.
The only other option would have been at the point that the fine was given - to hope that by being polite & apologetic the police would have used their discretion and just given you a warning. Retrospectively, this isn't going to happen.
Note that the fine in the UK is £100, rising to a max of £500 if taken to court (except Northern Ireland, where it is up to £500, plus 3 points on your licence).
The World Health Organisation commented that seatbelts had undoubtedly saved over 1 million lives since being introduced in 1959, however, despite being required by law in most countries, usage remained around 50%, so more lives could be saved.
One method of improving usage is to enforce the law with penalties that are sufficient to persuade drivers & passengers to constantly use them...
Here endeth the lesson :-)