The death of a 13-year-old Ottawa boy in an accident on the Queensway has revealed what some critics believe is a serious flaw in Ontario's seatbelt law.

Cameron Smith, of Kanata, was killed when he was ejected from an SUV that rolled over several times after the driver lost control of the vehicle on Saturday night.

SUV carried eight people, but had only five seatbelts
SUV carried eight people, but had only five seatbelts

The SUV was carrying a 38-year-old driver and seven passengers. Four of them were teenagers and three were children. But it had just five seatbelts. Smith was one of two passengers who had no access to a seatbelt.

In Ontario, it's not against the law to carry more passengers than there are seatbelts in a vehicle, as long as all the seatbelts are being used, and as long as the driver is not inhibited by any of the passengers.

The victim's father, Alisdair Smith, says his son was smart enough to know he should be wearing a seatbelt. But, he says, Cameron was also the type to make sacrifices for others.

"If there weren't enough [seatbelts], I can easily see him as being the person who would say, 'Okay, you have it, I'll sit in the back.' You know, recognizing that that wasn't as safe, wasn't as appropriate. That was the sort of person that he was," Smith says.

But organizations such as the Canadian Automobile Association and the Canada Safety Council say the boy shouldn't have had to make that choice.

They want Ontario to follow Quebec's lead, and restrict the number of people in a vehicle to the number of seatbelts available.

Ontario's minister of Transportation, Harinder Takhar, says seatbelt laws are there to save lives.

"It's unfortunate about what happened in Ottawa. We are going to look at this legislation."

The Ontario Provincial Police say a report on exactly what happened in the accident could be released by the end of the week.