Can a five-seater car with six people including a child be driven on the road?
2 Answers
A child also counts as one person. A five-seater car can only accommodate five people. Driving with six people is not allowed on the road, otherwise, you will face fines and penalty points. Below is relevant information about vehicle overloading: Overloading Penalties: Driving a commercial passenger vehicle exceeding 20% of the approved capacity will result in 12 penalty points at once; driving a commercial passenger vehicle exceeding the approved capacity by less than 20%, or driving other passenger vehicles exceeding 20% of the approved capacity, will result in 6 penalty points at once; driving passenger vehicles other than commercial passenger vehicles or school buses exceeding the approved capacity by less than 20% will result in 3 penalty points at once. This means that for an ordinary 5-seat sedan, overloading by one person will result in 6 penalty points at once.
I've encountered this issue too. It's definitely not okay for a five-seater car to carry six children. The law clearly states that the number of passengers in a car cannot exceed the designed seating capacity—five seats mean five people, including the driver. Adding even one more person counts as overloading, and traffic police can stop you at any time, with fines starting at several hundred yuan. The key concern is safety. Overloading can make the car's center of gravity unstable, making it hard to stop during emergency braking and increasing the risk of losing control when turning. Especially if the children aren't wearing seat belts, the risk of injury or worse in an accident is much higher. My advice is not to take this risk. Either switch to a seven-seater SUV or MPV, or split the trip into multiple cars. Remember, prioritizing safety is far better than relying on luck.
