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New “Kids in cars” law in Washington State takes effect January 1
Below are the new requirements for children riding in cars.
Car seat rules change
Depending on their height, middle school aged kids might have to go back to sitting in booster seats. According to the Washington State Traffic Safety Commission, changes to the law include:
–Children up to 2 years old should be in a rear-facing car seat.
–Children 2 to 4 years old must be in a harness car seat, either forward or rear-facing.
–Children over 4 years old and under 4 feet 9 inches tall must be in a booster seat with a seat belt or harness. Many children will be using a booster until they’re 10 to 12 years old.
–Children over 4 feet 9 inches tall can ride without a booster seat, but must wear a seat belt.
–All children under the age 13 should ride in the back seat with a seat belt.
Drivers can be ticketed if passengers under the age 16 are riding without the proper seating or seat belt.
“These changes will help parents protect their children on the road,” said Dr. Beth Ebel, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine and member of the Washington State American Academy of Pediatrics. “This change brings us in line with current best thinking about keeping kids safe.” [bolded words mine]
Now, in your opinion, how will this law be enforced? Will the police and State Patrol be stopping random cars with children in them, to measure and weigh the kids, and fine the parents if they are deemed to not be using the mandated restraints? Please note all the bolded “weasel words” in the regulation. How long will it take until the first lawsuit challenging the regulation is filed? Will the plaintiffs have a chance of getting the new rules repealed or changed?
What do you all think?
Published in Law
Pediatricians are just as leftist as public health physicians who all work for the government.
If you have 5 kids and very little money for a van, looks like you will be s— out of luck. May even lose your kids.
Nannies! Making me reconsider my desire to move to Washington State.
This looks like pretty standard regulations across the states already. I have to wonder what sort of child seat regulations Washington state had prior to this.
Note that some of those statements are SHOULD not SHALL, while some are CAN.
These are good recommendations, but, just like all regulations, are a massive tax on the less well off and no one has the moral authority to determine what risks you are allowed to take with your own children, at least at this level.
I think that the State of Washington must make it illegal to transport children in automobiles.
There. I’ve just made the children safer than Dr. Ebel has.
Might be a plot to keep children from developing a close relationship with their parents, like happened in the old days on our long driving vacations. People should develop close relationships only with the government.
Maybe it’s a wacko suspicion, but not nearly as wacko as any of Rachel Maddow’s conspiracy theories.
Jonah recently had a guest on his Remnant podcast making that point. Child seat laws might be saving lives but it could play a small part in the birth rate decline. Families have to factor in vehicle size and car seats into the transportation budget.
Rear facing car seats are a conspiracy to force people into larger more unnecessary vehicles.
They are an abomination, and the lawmakers requiring them to be used until 2 hate children and should be damned.
In 1965, I drove from California to Boston with my 6 month old son in a crib wedged in the middle seat of a VW van. He is now a trial lawyer so there is that.
Oooh! I just had another idea! The professoriate of the University of Washington School of Medicine is such a valuable asset for the state that they should have to wear football helmets whenever they are in an automobile. It will make them safer.
Many of my contemporaries are now becoming grandmothers. The stories I am hearing are appalling. Parenthood has turned into a worrisome grind.
”Back to sleep” has now caused babies to have flat heads and no core strength, so now they need “tummy time” and quite often helmets.
One young mother of my acquaintance does not let anyone near her baby unless they’ve had a flu shot. Her preschooler has to strip down and completely change clothes before he comes in the house after school.
Everything is a big deal My four year old grand daughter has a lisp, her preschool wanted to start an IEP. Specialists were recommended. Calls were made. Paperwork started. They came home for Christmas, I googled it and solved the problem in one day
My bestfriend (mother of five, grandmother to six) is convinced that they are making parenthood so awful and burdensome to discourage families from having more than two children.
Even though I’m all for parents properly buckling up their children in the age-appropriate seat, I’d rather government stay out of trying to protect me. What’s next, roll bars and helmets for all drivers and passengers?
Say what?
where does he do this? The front lawn?
This is a tough one. There are still a remarkable number of parents who let kinds ride unbelted at all. We worked a rollover a while back where an 8 month pregnant mother was driving with three kids in the car – only one kid had a seatbelt on. The two other kids were killed and the mom is now a paraplegic. (Belted kid was uninjured). Would more laws have helped? I doubt it. And now the taxpayers are likely on the hook for mom’s lifetime care costs. Now, one example isn’t enough to make policy, but as I said poor parenting practices are more widespread than we would like to think.
I was against mandatory seatbelt laws back in the early 80s, on the grounds that they were a training exercise to get us used to stuff like the OP describes and more. I found very few conservatives who agreed with me, many of them bringing up the public-costs-for-injuries argument (which I rejected then and reject now).
You can’t legislate away human stupidity. My preferred method would be to let insurance companies refuse to pay for injuries sustained in accidents where the insured or passengers were unbelted. To my knowledge, state insurance authorities do not permit them to do that. All states require all people in cars to be belted, but the only legal penalty for not being belted is a fine.
Or if you wind up being only 4′ 9″ tall like I am, until they’re in high school. Thank goodness laws like this weren’t in effect when I was growing up because seriously, I never would have gotten out of a booster seat. What a nightmare that would have been. (And I’m not being sarcastic when I say that.)
My kids have been teasing me about the same thing. I didn’t hit 5’0” until I was 18. Where I’ve remained. Am pretty sure, with the current trend, I’ll be in a car seat as a senior citizen (height requirement getting higher while I get shorter …)
From what I understand, the back porch.
And I bet that whole process is really good for the poor little guy. Stripped down and bathed in sanitizer before he can go near his new sister.
I have a couple of great grandchildren that refused to buckle up. When they got in my car, we just sat were we were parked, as I told them this car won’t start without the seat belts being buckled. The youngest of the three, was here visiting several weeks ago, and he remembered that they had to walk because of their refusal. He was 5 years old then, now 17 and just as stubborn. Good thing I don’t drive anymore.
Not allowing larger, older children (10+) in the front seat inhibits their future driving abilities.
From the front passenger seat, kids can observe driving techniques (good and bad) by watching the driver. A good driver can demonstrate driving techniques and decision making to the passenger.
Having worked in the ER for 30 years let me tell you that you are just plain wrong. A kid under two in forward facing seat has a ginormous head that is going to snap forward on impact. They also have a relatively ginormous liver and spleen that the straps in the car seat are going to rupture.
Ever notice that in airliners the stews sit facing backward against a sold bulkhead? That’s the best way to survive a crash. The FAA looked into making passengers sit facing backwards but it was so unpopular they had to give it up. But the testing showed it significantly improved survival on impact. For decades on Air Force transports the seats were rear facing for the passengers.
I’ve seen lots of kids in car seats involved in horrendous wrecks come out without a scratch. And lots of kids who weren’t badly injured or killed in relatively minor wrecks.
My 14 month grandchild rides facing backward in the center of vehicle where precious cargo has the best chance of surviving.
Now watch a comparison of front and rear facing.
Here is something that might have helped: having every car equipped with the devices, already invented and ready to go, that turn off cell phones, GPS units, game devices et al, once a car is going more than 20 mph.
We are losing 16 people a day in the US to drivers engaged in the electronic activities of their choice. Usually the offending drivers are under the age of 30, and feel it just is not possible to do without their phones or other devices while driving their car.
Kinda sucks for the passengers though.
Since Insurance in mandatory in all states, I say let the Insurance Companies mandate whatever restraints are needed (and I’ll bet they have greater knowledge of best practices, and move faster to change requirements than slow-moving government), and refuse to pay for their insureds who are not adequately belted in. However, this is impossible at present, since the State governments would never give up their power over this area.
Well worth noting, but that doesn’t mean Guruforhire is plain wrong. I wouldn’t agree that these things are an abomination, but that doesn’t mean the rest of what he said isn’t right.
I wouldn’t be surprised if insurance companies are a major force behind these regulations. They have promoted such mandates in the past (though I don’t have any specific examples handy).
There’s an important lesson here. There are no solutions – simply trade offs.
Babies havIng their own seat on a plane for instance. Cost goes up, more people drive than fly – and we all know driving is more dangerous.
Air bags have saved many lives. That said, when mine were little (30 plus years ago) nobody drove to work and forgot their kids in the back seat. Because the kid was in the front seat.
I hated driving anywhere with my grandkids in the back seat facing back. Can’t see them – can’t reach a pacifier or keep an eye. Which inspired many probably unsafe pulling off the freeway to check.
Car seats hadn’t even been invented when I was a kid – my siblings and I all survived. BUT we didn’t spend all day every day in the car like moms do now.
I’m all about car seats and seatbelts. But I do think these new regulations are burdensome. And I’ll be damned if I’ll get in a car seat when the height requirement goes up and I get shorter.
Well the good news is that in Seattle, when the kid turns 18, he can shoot up drugs in public without worry. The girls can get pregnant at any age, 13 even, and get a parent free abortion. But they’ll be safe in mommy’s car. The boys can be on Riddlen when mom jackknifes the minivan and never know a semi took her out. Government knows best.