By Morgan Roan
University of Georgia

A new law in Georgia will require children 5 years old and
younger to be secured in a child safety seat while traveling.

“The bill has been passed by both Houses in Georgia and will be
finalized when Gov. Sonny Perdue signs it,” said Don Bower, an
Extension Service human development specialist with the
University of Georgia College of Family and Consumer
Sciences. “The law will go into effect on July 1, 2004.”

This bill is an extension of the current law, Bower said.
Children 4 and under are already required to be in child safety
seats. The new bill extends the law to cover children for
another year, up to their sixth birthday, in safety seats.

Bower said many older children still need to be in booster
seats. The American Academy of Pediatrics, he said, recommends
that children between 30 and 80 pounds and 4 feet 9 inches or
shorter to be buckled into an appropriate booster seat.

This is to help protect all child passengers, he said. Seat
belts are designed for adults who are at least 4-feet-9 and 80
pounds or larger.

Booster seats correct the fit of the belts for smaller
children, he said. They raise a child so the vehicle’s lap belt
fits low across the hips and the shoulder belt fits correctly
across the chest.

Advocates for highway safety have found that using booster
seats reduced the risk of injury by 59 percent when compared
with the use of vehicle belts alone.

Under the new Georgia law, children who are older than 5 years
won’t be required to be in a safety seat but will still have to
wear seat belts until they’re 17. Even then, all drivers and
front-seat passengers have to wear seat belts.

All states require child restraint systems to ages 2, 3 or 4,
and most require seat belts for older persons. Fewer than half
have booster seat laws.

Georgia’s child passenger safety law is being strengthened,
Bower said, because motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause
of death for children and for all people between the ages of 1
and 34.

Georgia Division of Public Health statistics show that on
average, 35 children under age 5 are killed every year as
passengers in car crashes.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates
that about 150 lives could be saved annually if children were
restrained with lap and shoulder belts. Another 19 lives could
be saved every year if children who are ready for booster seats
used them with lap and shoulder belts.

The UGA Extension Service gets grant funding from the Georgia
Governor’s Office of Highway Safety to run the Georgia Traffic
Injury Prevention Institute.

The state’s main provider of passenger safety educational
programs, GTIPI has taught seat belt safety for more than 18
years. In that time, the use of child safety seats has
increased from less than 20 percent to more than 90 percent.

“Our staff goes and helps communities run safety seat check
events,” Bower said. “Families can bring their vehicles and
safety seats and specialists can check them to make sure
they’re installed correctly and all parts are functioning
properly.”

Some common errors the staff has seen are misrouted safety
belts, harnesses too loose around the child and seats
inappropriate for the child’s height and weight, he said.

“It is important for parents to read both the safety seat and
vehicle manual,” Bower said, “to ensure that the seats are
properly installed.”

Booster seats can be bought at discount outlets, toy retailers
and baby stores.

The GTIPI maintains lists of recalled seats, provides free
brochures and helps parents help their beginning teen drivers
get off to a safe start.

To learn more about child safety restraint systems and seat
belts, call the GTIPI at 1-800-342-9819. Or check the Web at
www.ridesafegeorgia.org.

(Morgan Roan is a student writer with the University of
Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)