New Child Passenger Safety Law Takes Effect Aug. 1
A new law takes effect Thursday that could change the way families and their children ride in vehicles.
The new law now specifies age requirements for child safety seats, while bumping up the age from 8 to 9 years old for booster seat use.
Previously, state law required car seats to be used based on a child’s height and weight.
“The new law really brings our state law up to best practice,” said Sheila Nesbitt, trauma outreach and prevention coordinator at North Memorial Health Hospital. “It includes a lot of the things we’ve been recommending to families for years. Now we’ll be able to say not only is this the recommendation to keep your child safe, we can now say it’s also state law.”
Statistics showed that children riding without proper car seat use are more likely to be injured or even killed in a car accident.
“The new law encourages parents to focus less on jumping to that next stage too soon,” said Nesbitt. “It encourages them to take a look at the seats that they have and get the most safety value out of that seat as possible.”
Child Passenger Safety Law
The new Child Passenger Safety Law age guidelines are as follows:
Birth to at least 2 years old:
- Rear-facing in an infant or convertible child safety seat.
At least 2 years old AND has outgrown the rear-facing seat with internal harness by height or weight:
- Forward-facing with an internal harness.
4 years old AND has outgrown the forward-facing seat with internal harness by height or weight:
- Ride restrained in a belt-positioning booster seat using the lap belt and shoulder belt.
9 years old or has outgrown the booster seat AND the child can pass the five-step test that demonstrates how the seat belt fits correctly:
- Ride restrained with a lap belt and shoulder belt secured correctly on the vehicle seat.
Additionally, children under 13 years old must sit in the back seat if possible.
Ellie Tulkki reporting
