Most Wanted
Transportation Safety
Improvements
State Issues

Improve Child Occupant Protection

Importance

Children deserve the highest level of safety in all modes of transportation.

From 1998 through 2007, more than 3,500 child occupants between the ages of 4 and 8 died in traffic crashes.

• About 50 percent of those 3,500 children were unrestrained. Of those restrained, most were improperly restrained in a seat belt that was designed for adults, rather than in a child safety seat or booster seat.
• According to Partners for Child Passenger Safety, although abdominal injuries from crashes are relatively rare, children restrained in seat belts are 3.5 times more likely to suffer an abdominal injury compared to optimally restrained children. In that study, there were no reported abdominal injuries among children 4 to 8 years old who were restrained in booster seats.

In 2007, more than 260 child passengers between the ages of 4 and 8 died in motor vehicle crashes. This number is down from 415 in 1996.

Safety Recommendations: This issue area currently includes one recommendation (H-96-14).

H-96-14 (the States, the District of Columbia, and the Territories)
Issued October 26, 1996
Added to the Most Wanted List: 1997
Status: Various
Review existing laws and enact legislation, if needed, that would ensure that children up to 8 years old are required by the State’s mandatory child restraint use law to use child restraint systems and booster seats. (Source: 1996 Safety Study on the Performance and Use of Child Restraint Systems, Seat Belts, and Air Bags for Children in Passenger Vehicles [NTSB/SS-96-01])

Summary of Action

Forty-three States and the District of Columbia require use of booster seats, although only 21 States (HI, IL, IN, KS, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, NJ, NC, OR, PA, TN, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, and WY) and the District of Columbia require their use through age 7, as the Board recommended.

In 2008, at least 9 States (AK, AZ, FL, IA, ID, MN, NY, OH, and OK) considered legislative proposals to improve their child passenger safety laws in accordance with the Board’s recommendation. Kentucky and Mississippi enacted a child restraint law requiring child restraint use for children up to age 6. Three states (MA, MI, and UT) enacted child restraint laws to fully implement this recommendation. Maryland upgraded its existing child restraint law to fully implement this recommendation.

Actions Remaining

Twenty-eight States, American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands should enact laws requiring children between the ages of 4 and 8 to ride in booster seats.

November 2008

1. A special cooperative program between The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm Insurance Companies to study child occupant protection.

Map - Child Booster Seats Laws (104 KB)
Chart - Child Booster Seats Laws (26 KB)

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