Wednesday, August 12, 2015

New Child Passenger Safety Laws

Beginning September 1, New Jersey will begin enforcing a new set of car restraint laws. The most significant change to the law includes having all children under the age of 2 and 30 pounds secured in rear-facing car seats. The law also more specifically lays out the progression of moving from a car seat to a booster to a seatbelt.

The legislation includes these stages of carseat usage:



a.
A child under the age of 2 years and weighing less than 30 pounds shall be secured in a rear-facing seat equipped with a 5-point harness.

b.
A child under the age of 4 years and weighing less than 40 pounds shall be secured as described in (a) until they reach the upper limits of the rear-facing seat, then in a forward-facing child restraint equipped with a 5-point harness.
c.
A child under the age of 8 and a height of 57 inches shall be secured as described in (a) or (b) until they reach the upper limits of the rear-facing or forward-facing seat, then in a belt positioning booster seat.

d.
A child over 8 years of age or 57 inches in height must be properly secured by a seat belt.
If there are no rear seats, the child shall be secured as described above in the front seat except that no child shall be secured in a rear-facing seat in the front seat of any vehicle that is equipped with an active passenger-side airbag. The aforementioned is acceptable if the airbag is de-activated.


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