Car Safety: Do You Need To Use A Booster Seat Starting June 1?

On June 1, 2010, Texas Department of Public Safety officers will begin writing tickets for Texas’s new booster seat law.  The law requires all children under 8, unless they are already 4 foot 9 inches or taller, to ride in a booster seat.  Failure to use a booster seat may result in fines of $25 to $250. 

But don’t just use a booster seat because it’s the law.  Booster seats make a big difference to your child’s safety.  Centers for Disease Control studies show that, for children between the ages of 4 and 7,  use of a booster seat reduces the risk of injury by 59% compared to only using seat belts.

 If you think using only a seat belt is enough, watch the following crash test, and notice the child either coming out off the seat belt and the sealt belt hitting directly across the other child’s neck.  Imagine what something like that would do to your kid.