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North Carolina Child Restraint Law
In the 1996 safety study, the Safety Board found that a lap/shoulder belt would not properly fit a child less than 54 inches tall; children under this height would be safer in a booster seat. The general opinion among law enforcement has been that age is a better enforcement criterion than height. At the time of the Board’s 1996 study, the American Academy of Pediatrics age, height, and weight guidelines indicated that the average 8-year-old child was 54 inches tall. Therefore, in our 1996 safety study, the Safety Board recommended enacting legislation that ensures children up to 8 are required by the State’s mandatory child restraint use law to use child restraint systems and booster seats.
The value of legislation is apparent when considering the advances made in child restraint and seat belt use after legislation was passed. Child restraint use went from 15 percent to 51 percent between 1979 and 1985 and is now above 90 percent. Seat belt use went from 14 percent to 59 percent between 1984 and 1991, and is now about 82 percent. Thirty-three States (Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming) and the District of Columbia mandate that children age 4 and above use booster seats. At least 6 other States are considering booster seat legislation.
FARS data from 1995 through 2004 show that 297 children were riding in motor vehicles on Kansas roads when they were involved in a fatal crash. Eighty-two percent of the 297 children died or suffered injuries; 94 percent of those children who died or suffered injuries were not in child restraints. Only 24 children, or 8 percent, involved in fatal crashes were using any form of child restraint.
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