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New booster seat law to take effect in 2010 |
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Monday, 23 March 2009 |
By KAREN CAMPBELL
Assistant Managing Editor
Parents of children younger than 8-year-old soon will be required to buckle them into booster seats, with the passage of a new state law.
A 6-month warning period, originally slated to begin next month, will begin Oct. 7 instead, with the law scheduled to take full effect (including citations and fines) April 7, 2010.
Gov. Ted Strickland signed the bill into law earlier this year after the National Transportation Safety Board singled Ohio out for needing to switch to a booster law late last year. Ohio is now the 44th state to enact a booster seat law, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).
According to the Ohio Booster Seat Coalition, 60 percent of parents don’t use boosters but they are 54 percent more likely if it is a law.
The AAA reports that booster seats, which cost approximately $15 for a basic model, prop children up so seat belts fit
properly.
Children under 8 are too small to be protected adequately by seat belts in vehicles, which are designed for adults. Without booster seats, children have a greater risk to their necks and vital organs from lap and shoulder belts not fitting properly, according to AAA.
The new law requires that all children younger than 8 years of age and shorter than 4-foot, 9-inches tall be secured in booster seats. The existing law requires children younger than 4 and less than 40 pounds be secured in a child safety seat.
Currently a primary traffic violation, Lt. Scott Carrico, commander of the Wapakoneta Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, said the new law would make booster seats a secondary traffic violation, meaning officers could not stop a motorist solely for suspicion of not adhering to the booster seat law.
Failure to adhere to the booster seat regulation is considered a moving violation, while not wearing a seatbelt is considered an equipment violation, with no points put on a motor vehicle operator’s license.
The law does not apply during emergency situations or if a parent has it in writing from a physician that the child for medical reasons should not be in a booster seat.
Fines would be between $25 and $75 plus court costs.
“A lot of people don’t realize this is taking effect,” Carrico said this week. “The extra warning period is to let them know, to give them time to get the boosters.”
In his 20-year career, Carrico said he has issued only a handful of child restraint violations. He said it tends to be a bigger problem in cities, as compared to rural areas, where drivers may more frequently just put their children in the back of the car to head across town.
“I think a lot of people here are using booster seats,” Carrico said.
He said he thinks the law is a good one.
“When you see what not wearing a seatbelt can do to an adult in a traffic crash and you think about a child who weighs a third of that, there’s no question,” Carrico said. “Seatbelts will not adequately fasten them in a car. They put them behind their back, they get twisted, but in a booster,the belt fits right and children don’t feel as locked in so they’re more comfortable.”
While there may always be those who argue that it’s their right not to put their children in boosters, as they do about having to wear seatbelts, Carrico said they aren’t enforcing it to punish people but to save lives.
“Studies show it will save lives,” Carrico said. “I think people are finally starting to see that seatbelts will do that. We’re starting to see a lot more buckled up and this is just another part of that.
“Children could be spared if they are in some kind of booster seat,” he said.
Wapakoneta Police Chief Dave Webb said parents failing to place their children in the proper safety constraints have not been a problem and he can’t remember the last time a child not properly restrained was injured in a crash.
But he said he’s sure there are parents not doing what they should to keep children safe in vehicles.
“If it stops someone from getting hurt, obviously we’re for it, but there’s still a lot to find out about it,” Webb said of the law. “My initial thoughts are it could be confusing. We need to get more information and they’ve got to make it easier for police to enforce. If it’s difficult to enforce it may not be enforced as much as it should be.”
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 24 March 2009 )
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