• 31
  • January
    2012

Along with resolutions and hopes for a better future, the New Year brings in an assortment of new laws, especially in California. Among them is a law that may surprise many parents who think that once their children are old enough to go to school, booster seats in their motor vehicle are no longer required. Effective January 1, a new law aims to make riding in a car safer for children by requiring many six and seven-year-olds to sit in booster seats.

The new law requires children to stay in booster seats until they are eight years old or at least four feet nine inches tall. The previous law required kids to sit in booster seats until they were six years of age or weighed 60 pounds.

Booster Seats Save Lives

Medical experts are in favor of the new law, saying that traditional seat belts can injure a child, because it is easy for the child to wear the seat belt improperly. If a seat belt is too high on a child's abdomen, a collision can cause serious injury to the child's bowels, bladder and spine.

Car accidents are the leading cause of death and brain injury to children between ages 4 and 8. According to the California Department of Public Health, car accidents killed 113 children between ages 6 and 7 and caused 414 brain injuries. Advocates of child safety contend that booster seats lower the risk of death and injury by 60 percent, because they properly align the seat belt straps with the child's strongest bones, making the child's body better able to manage the impact of a collision.

Police are empowered by the new law to pull over any person that they reasonably suspect is violating the law. The penalty for failing to comply with the law is a fine of 100 dollars. For subsequent offenders, the fine increases to 250 dollars.

Source: "New law has kids going back in the booster seat," KFSN-TV, 1/7/12