Texas Personal Injury Lawyers – Jim Adler & Associates – Blog

Ever heard of a booster seat? They are life savers for kids who are too old for car seats but not old enough for seat belts. The National Transportation Safety Board says 3,500 child passengers between the ages of 4 and 8 died in traffic accidents between 1998 and 2007. The NTSB says about half of the children were not restrained. Most of the rest were wearing seat belts. Seat belts are not designed for young children who have outgrown car seats. A seat belt can choke a child or cause abdominal injuries during a crash. Booster seats position the belts correctly across a young child’s body. Forty-three states and the District of Columbia require booster seats for child passengers who have outgrown car seats. Twenty-one of these states mandate booster seats for children through age 7. The NTSB is urging Texas and six other states without booster seat laws to pass them soon. Other states that lack such laws include Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Ohio and South Dakota. Pediatricians are behind the push for a booster seat law in Texas during the state’s legislative session that is currently underway. A similar effort failed to win enough votes during Texas 2007 legislative session.
Safe Kids USA, a national safety organization with coalitions in major Texas cities and other cities across the United States, holds free booster and car seat clinics with national experts who train parents and care givers in the proper installation of car seats and booster seats. While car seats can be expensive, booster seats cost about $15.