When Is It Legal to Ride in the Bed of a Truck?
In 2017, Mississippi passed a law that requires anyone in a moving vehicle to wear a seatbelt. This law brings the state up to speed with most other states in the country. It also means that riding in a truck bed in Mississippi is unlawful in most cases. The only exception would be if you were in an approved safety seat installed in the back of a truck with a seatbelt attachment. Because most people don’t have these seats and many are not actually U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) safety approved, the odds of you legally riding in the back of a truck are slim to none.
There can also be exceptions made for commercial, industrial, and agricultural purposes. You might be permitted to sit in the back of a truck transporting grains to a silo, for example, as long as that truck stayed under a certain speed limit and followed a road with no outside traffic. Still, such exceptions are rare and will vary from worksite to worksite, so you will want to check with your employer if there are rules about riding in a truck bed while on-the-clock.
