Wisconsin's recently passed law mandating that children under age 8 ride in booster seats when being transported in motor vehicles is a virtually worthless piece of legislation. While well intentioned, this law doesn't really address any legitimate concerns about proper motor vehicle safety precautions.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than 80 percent of children between ages 3 and 8 are inappropriately graduated to adult seat belts. In order to prevent serious injuries, parents need to be educated about the safety benefits of securing their children with proper safety restraints; unfortunately, the booster seat law does not address this necessity. Instead, it grants power to the Department of Transportation to micromanage Wisconsin parenting, presents compliance and enforcement nightmares and fails to provide incentive for parents to better protect their kids.
Based on recommendations from NHTSA, the law requires that children between the ages of 4 and 8 who are also less than 4 feet 9 inches tall and weigh less than 80 pounds ride in a booster seat when being transported in a motor vehicle. That means a parent driving a carpool of second graders to soccer practice would have to provide a booster seat for each child. Even if a family coughs up the cash (at minimum $15 per seat, with high quality seats from $60-$100) for four booster seats, there are other considerations to take into account, including the hassle of loading and unloading the seats each time a different aged child enters the car.
The enforcement dimension of the law is even more troubling than the compliance problem. Unless patrol deputies start driving around with tape measures and scales in their squad cars, there is no way to know whether a child falls within the booster seat range.
Even if officers did measure and weigh kids on the spot, there's no instrument that can tell a child's age. A 9-year-old whose height and weight fit within the booster seat range doesn't have to ride in a booster seat because the law only applies through age 8.
The penalties for violating the law are also a joke. First-time offenders pay as little as $10 for a citation — and no more than $25. Money is often used as a motivating factor to get people to comply with laws they would otherwise ignore (think $125 speeding tickets), which is one reason financial penalties are attached to laws. A $10 fine is hardly persuasive material — it's actually cheaper to get a single citation than it is to buy a booster seat!
A more effective way to make motor vehicle transportation safer for Wisconsin kids is to educate the public, and especially parents, about why small children are better off in booster seats. The current law doesn't explain why it was enacted or what the benefits of having young kids ride in booster seats are; it merely mandates that parents comply or face possible penalties. Parents who hear the message that small children who don't ride in booster seats are at increased risk for accident-related injury and decide to follow the height and weight range advice of NHTSA on their own will be more likely to enforce sound safety measures themselves.
That's the ideal situation — parents who understand why booster seats are important are more likely to pay attention and use them properly. Parents should be allowed to make the booster seat decision for themselves. The role of the government in this situation is not to dictate the age at which kids can graduate to adult seat belts but to provide parents with the information they need to make informed decisions about their kids' safety.
Liz Sanger ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in violin performance and English.
