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Ohio Booster Seat Coalition  |
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Questions & AnswersAnswers
to Frequently Asked Questions About Enacting a Booster Seat Law
How
do booster seats work to prevent injury?
Lap and shoulder belts are
designed to minimize risk of injury and death by holding you into the
car and spreading the energy of a crash over the strongest parts of the
skeleton. Seat belts are
designed for adults; because seat belts do not fit well on many
children, they can distribute crash forces over soft tissue, rather than
bone, leading to so-called seat belt syndrome. Depending on the age and size of the child, car seats or booster
seats provide the best protection for young occupants and do the job of
holding children securely in a vehicle and managing deceleration forces.
What
is seat belt syndrome?
The term seat belt syndrome
describes the spectrum of intra-abdominal and spinal injuries associated
primarily with the use of lap belt restraints. For smaller passengers, including many children, seat belt
syndrome injuries may also be associated with lap-shoulder belts. Placing larger, older children in lap-shoulder belts and younger,
smaller children in car seats or booster seats are the best ways of
avoiding seat belt-associated injuries.
Where
did this 8 year/4'9" figure come from?
Children are ready for lap
and shoulder belts alone when they can place their backs firmly against
the vehicle seat back with their knees bent comfortably over the vehicle
seat cushion. Lap belts
should fit low and snug on the upper thighs and shoulder belts should
rest over the shoulder and across the chest. Biometric research and peer-reviewed scientific studies have
shown that for most children, that good fit is achieved by the time a
child reaches 8 years of age, or earlier if the child has reached
4'9".
Why
is a primary law necessary?
The bill would make
enforcement of the booster seat provision primary, which research has
shown to be the best incentive to encourage restraint use. Research conducted by Partners for Child Passenger Safety and the
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has found that children ages 4
through 7 years in states with booster seat laws are 39 percent more
likely to be appropriately restrained in a booster seat or child safety
seat than children in states without such laws, with usage rates highest
in states with primary laws. The
two states with the lowest booster seat use,
Will
requiring booster seats present a financial hardship to families?
While the bill has the
potential to save lives and prevent thousands of injuries each year, the
cost to parents for taking this important step in protecting their
children is minimal: booster
seats can be purchased for less than $15. Further, passing this law in
What
about concerns of differential enforcement?
Some people may view a
primary restraint law as just another excuse for police to pull people
over or may fear that the law will not be evenly enforced across
socioeconomic strata. However,
as the National Safety Council notes, “Everyone would agree that
protecting lives with seat belts is at least as important as a broken
tail light or littering.” Yet,
while
Children
restrained in booster seats still die in crashes. Is mandating booster seat use really in the best interest of
Opponents of child restraint
laws may point to cases where children restrained in car seats, booster
seats, or seat belts were killed or paralyzed to support their
arguments. The fact of the
matter is that risk to passengers in motor vehicle crashes is never
zero. Mandating booster seat
use for child passengers who are too big for car seats but too small for
seat belts alone is not about removing all risk entirely, but about
taking common sense, empirically proven measures to decrease risk. Some crashes are simply not survivable, and each year some
children who are restrained will still be seriously injured or killed in
motor vehicle crashes; however, the risk of serious injury or death is
substantially lower for children who are restrained in age and
weight-appropriate ways, compared to those who are not.
How
will police know if a passenger is under 8 years/4'9"?
Many of the things police
officers do in the daily course of business require officer discretion
and some specialized training. Laws
pertaining to probationary drivers’ license holders are quite
different than those applying to other drivers, for example, and
officers have to make informed decisions about the age of a driver
before stopping him or her for a suspected infraction of graduated
licensing laws. A variety of
tools are available to assist police officers in the complex decisions
they are called upon to make every day. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has released a
six-minute roll call video designed to assist officers in enforcing
booster seat requirements during traffic stops. “Booster Seats—The Missing Link” provides meaningful
details about the need for booster seat use and includes suggestions for
effectively enforcing booster seat laws.
Prepared
March 24, 2008 (updated November 25, 2008) by Susan Connor, Ph.D.,
Research Manager,
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