Car seats and new regulations

It’s the law in all 50 states that babies under 18 months should be restrained in a child safety seat when traveling in a car.

The majority of states also have laws requiring that under-3s use seats. It’s advisable to stick to these laws – if you don’t, you could be risking your child’s life. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) figures indicate that around 392 children under the age of five who were involved in car accidents in 2006 survived because they were restrained in a child car seat. An additional 98 under-fives would most likely have survived the car accident in which they died had they been sitting in one.

It’s for the over-threes that the law starts to slip when it comes to in-car safety. Almost half of children aged four to seven years old who died in car crashes in 2004 weren’t appropriately restrained – and this is because not every state has adequate booster seat laws, and some don’t have any at all.

According to a study by Philadelphia Children’s Hospital, using the adult seat belt alone to restrain a young child makes him more than three times likely to be injured in a car accident and four times more likely to incur serious head injuries. A booster seat raises a toddler who has outgrown his toddler seat up to the correct height so the adult seat belt can restrain him correctly, without injuring him in a collision.

States with optimal booster seat laws:
District of Columbia; Hawaii; Illinois; Indiana; Kansas; Maine; Missouri; New Jersey; North Carolina; Pennsylvania; Tennesse; Vermont; Virginia; Washington; West Virginia; Wisconsin; Wyoming

States with no booster seat laws:

Alaska; Arizona; Florida; Kentucky; Massachussetts; Michigan; Minnesota; Mississippi; Ohio; South Dakota; Texas; Utah

You can read more on this subject by going to our car safety article.

To ensure you are fitting your child's car seat correctly, watch gurgle's guide, fitting an infant carrier into the car.

Safe Roads (http://www.saferoads.org/) can provide more information on your state’s child car seat laws

The information in this feature is intended for educational purposes only. If you have any concerns about your health, the health of your child or the health of someone you know, please consult with a doctor or other healthcare professional.