Coming
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New Car Seat Laws Protect Iowa Children
Gretchen Vigil, MD, Department of Pediatrics
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics
Winter 2005
New state
child restraint laws, passed in July 2004, mean that Iowa is no longer one of
the worst states in the union for safe child travel. The new law mandates:
- Children 0-12 months old, and weighing less than 20 pounds, must be
secured in a rear-facing child restraint system (car seat).
- Children 1-6 years old must be secured using a child restraint
system (car seat or booster seat), not with a seat belt alone.
- Children 6-11 years old must be secured with either a child
restraint system or a seat belt.
The new law has the potential to increase the safety of Iowa’s children, but only if
child safety restraints are installed and used properly – and this happens in
only about one of ten cases! Some of
the errors can put a child in real danger.
Parents
should be encouraged to have a certified child passenger safety technician
perform an evaluation of the child in the seat. Car seat check-up events are one way they can do this.
For information on such events, and on child passenger
safety in general:
Call 1-800-728-3367
Visit the
Iowa Child Passenger Safety Network
Other useful online resources include:
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Child Passenger
Safety Program
American Academy of Pediatricians Car
Safety Seats: A Guide for Families, 2005
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