Effect of Booster Seat Laws on Appropriate Restraint Use by Children 4 to 7 Years Old Involved in Crashes

Abstract

Given the higher current use of age-appropriate restraints among children 4 to 5 years compared with older children, future upgrades to child restraint laws should include children through at least age 7 years to maximize the number of children properly restrained for their age.

Looking Back on Rear-Facing Car Seats: Surveying US Parents in 2011 and 2013

“…In contrast to studies that have demonstrated a positive impact of legislation on booster seat use, 29,30 we did not find any association between the mention of car seat orientation in state laws and parental report of forward-facing car seat use at or before 12 months of age. More than half of parents surveyed in 2013 indicated that state laws were a source of information about when to turn their child to face forward, yet laws mentioning rear-facing car seat use are present in only 13 states.…”

Children Safety Devices in Brazil—Why Do People Don’t Use Them after the Law?

“…Car safety seat laws in the United States have been found to be effective; children between the ages of 4 and 7 in states with seat laws were 39% more likely to be correctly restrained than those in other states [21]. In the present study, the law enforcement is the main reason that would influence a non-user of the safety device to use it, followed by the possibility of an accident.…”

Legislating child restraint usage –Its effect on self-reported child restraint use rates in a central city

“…There is a typical decline in proper restraint use as the age of the child increases (Vesentini & Willems, 2007;Winston, Kallan, et al, 2007;Winston, Chen, Elliott, Arbogast, & Durbin, 2004). The strengthened child passenger safety law did not appreciably increase the self-reported appropriate booster seat use beyond what was observed in the only national probability sample of BPB use employing direct interviews combined with observation, the National Survey of the Use of Booster Seats (NSUBS) study (Glassbrenner & Ye, 2008).…”