Maryland, Maine and Virginia
upgrade Child Seat Laws

Maryland and Maine adopted booster seat laws last spring, while Virginia upgraded its child passenger safety law.

The new Maryland law, which takes effect Oct. 1, 2003, requires children under age 6 must be properly restrained in child safety seats. Currently, children under 4 must use them. The bill upgrades the existing law to include booster seats. "This year, our State-wide network of hid passenger safety advocates concentrated their efforts on providing legislators with educational, hands-on demonstrations of proper booster seat use," said Barbara Beckett, state coordinator for the Maryland SAFE KIDS Coalition.

"This. . . helps ensure
that kids can be kids
and not memories."
----------------------------------------------------- --Maryland Del. William A. Bronrott

Under Maine's new law, which takes effect January 1, 2003, a child who weighs less than 40 pounds must be in a child seat. The new law also requires that a child who weighs 40-80 pounds and is under 8 years old bed placed in a booster seat. In addition, all children under 18 years of age must be secured in a child seat, booster seat, or seat belt depending on the child's weight, height, or age. Children under 12 and weighing less than 100 pounds must be secured in the back seat if possible.

The new Virginia law requires that children be properly restrained in child seats through age 5. The old law required child seats for children through age 4. The new law, which took effect July 1, 2002, also requires seat belts for children under 16-except for those who must be in child seats -wherever they're seated in the vehicle.

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