Your children are the most precious cargo that you transport in your car. By that standard, the question of when a child should use a booster seat is worth far more than a quick Google search. The safety of your children is so important that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issues new safety recommendations whenever new evidence is found to reduce injury in children.
The last time the AAP updated their recommendations was in the fall of 2018. The organization currently advises parents to use belt-positioning booster seats when their children outgrow forward-facing car safety seats. Car crashes are the leading cause of death among children, so caretakers should take the safety recommendations seriously. However, state laws are still lagging behind on new recommendations for child car safety. This lag can have serious consequences for families of young children.
Often, states have oversimplified laws that do not take a child’s weight or height into consideration. For example, in Texas, the child occupant laws simply state that all children under the age of eight must be in an age-appropriate seat. Some states, like Alabama, have laws that only require children to be in a child restraint system until the age of six.
The benefit of rear-facing is a big one: it saves lives. But there will come a day when your child maxes out of their car seat in both height and weight. When that day comes, there are different styles of booster seat options to choose from.
As children age, parents often become more relaxed about booster seat use. Parents may neglect booster seats in situations like riding in a different car or carpooling with family or friends. It also may be difficult to stand firm in the midst of a child’s complaining about being in a “baby seat” when all of their friends are using seat belts.
These are all factors that can lead to parents transitioning their children out of booster seats before they’re ready. It doesn’t help that the law gets more generalized once a child reaches eight years old. At age 8, children in Texas are only required to use the adult-sized safety belt in any vehicle—no matter how tall they are or how much they weigh.
A 2014 survey by Safe Kids Worldwide, a global organization of groups working to prevent accidental childhood injuries, found that 71% of parents did not know the height and weight a child needed to be before moving their child out of a booster seat. The test for when a child should use a booster seat is actually quite simple:
Children need to stay in booster seats until a seat belt falls in the right spots. Seat belts are made for adults and will not always fit a child properly. In addition to the height and weight requirements, there are some visual cues you can take to see if your child is ready to sit in the car without a booster seat.
Parenting is tough, and parents constantly hear new information that may lead them to second-guess the decisions they make. People have known for a long time that seat belts save lives. However, moving your child from car seat to booster seat and from booster seat to seat belt can be confusing when there is so much competing information available.
Many of us at The Carlson Law Firm are parents. As such, we want to keep our clients informed on the latest updates in safety for their children. Children who have been in car accidents can suffer from traumatic brain injuries from the force of a car wreck from another’s negligence or from a faulty car seat or booster seat equipment. If you or a loved one has been injured from either of these situations, contact a personal injury lawyer today for a free consultation.
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