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Car accidents are a leading cause of death among young children. While most parents believe that their kids are well buckled up, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that 46 percent of car seats and booster seats are misused in the US.
The best way to keep your child safe in a car is to make sure that they are properly buckled up in their seat. To do this, you must select a car seat that’s appropriate for their size and age.
Children are more prone to injuries during car accidents due to their fragile bodies. This is one of the main reasons why the state of Texas is strict when it comes to children’s safety on the road. Many people, however, lack knowledge of booster seat requirements in Texas.
Given the safety risks, it’s crucial that you educate yourself on the car seat laws in Texas and start following them. Not only do you help save lives by obeying these requirements, but you also avoid being on the bad side of the law.
Below, we’ve rounded up a list of booster seat requirements that you need to understand if you are in Texas.
Texas Rear-Facing Car Seat Law
There is no specific law on how old children must be to use rear-facing car seats. This gives you the choice of following the manufacturer’s guidelines. Also known as “proper use,” these guidelines vary from one manufacturer to another.
For instance, one manufacturer may recommend rear-facing car seats for children as young as a year old, provided they weigh more than 22 pounds. Another manufacturer may say that kids should be at least two years old before using forward-facing seats.
Essentially, rear-facing seats are safer since these reduce the risk of head and spine injuries in children in the event of car crashes. Let’s take a closer look at what the Texas car seat law requires.
Texas Booster Seat Law
In Texas, the law regarding booster seats requires children to use car seats until they are eight years old or taller than 4 feet 9 inches. Older children who have outgrown the booster seat should be buckled up in a safety belt. If you fail to restrain your child properly, you might pay a fine of up to $250.
In most cases, children can’t properly fit into adult seat belts until they are 10 to 12 years old. To find out if seat belts fit your kid or not, you can use the following 5-step booster test.
The 5-Step Booster Test
Sometimes kids reach an age when they feel they don’t need booster seats anymore. However, you might not be sure if they are ready to use a seatbelt. In such cases, you can test their readiness for switching to adult seats by carrying out the following tests:
· Check whether their backs fit on adult seats properly. You can do so by placing their backs against the vehicle seat. If your child’s back doesn’t comfortably rest against the seat, he or she is not ready to switch to adult seats.
· Check whether their knees naturally bend at the edge of the seat. Make sure they can comfortably lean back and keep their feet flat on the floor.
· Check if the shoulder belt lies between their neck and shoulder.
· Check if the lap belt lays on their thighs.
· Check whether they can sit properly without slouching or playing with the seat belt.
If your kid fails to pass any of the above tests, they are not ready to switch from booster seats to adult seats. Even if they pass the test, they might not be ready to ride in the front seat yet. Let’s find out how old your kid must be to use the passenger seat.
How Old Does a Child Have to Be to Ride in the Front Seat in Texas?
There is no specific law in Texas as to when kids can start riding in the front seat. However, many car manufacturers recommend that kids be at least 13 years old to use the passenger seat. This is because most car manufacturers design car restraint systems that are mainly focused on adults’ safety.
Seat belts help protect adults during a motor vehicle collision (MVC). To buckle up safely, you must ensure the lap belt rides over the lower part of the hip bone. Also, the shoulder belt must cover the breast bone.
The two belts work together to ensure you don’t get ejected from the vehicle in the event of a collision. The combination also slows down the rate at which your body comes to a complete stop. They do so by covering the rib cage and hips while restraining you at the same time.
This means that if your kid has a fragile body (ribs and hips) or their bones are not fully developed, the belt won’t be much help during a collision. This is the case with younger children who appear fully grown but don’t have strong enough bones. The belt may “ride up” into their abdominal cavity during a collision, posing more risks to the child’s internal organs.
Also, note that the development of the breastbone or sternum is not always consistent. A mature sternum can take six to 12 years to mature or up to 25 years in some people. An underdeveloped sternum poses a death risk in the case of an MVC.
In conclusion, a seat belt cannot protect your child adequately until they develop stronger bones. Next, let’s find out why a back seat is considered more protective than the one in the front.
Why Back Seats are Safer than Front Seats
Unlike the front seat, the back seat keeps you away from the leading causes of car crash injuries. These include collisions with the dashboard, the airbag, and the windshield.
According to SAE International, restraining your child in the back seat reduces the risk of death from fatal MVCs. The study also indicated that children who sat at the back of a car without airbags recorded a 35 percent reduced death rate, while those who sat in vehicles with passenger airbags recorded a 50 percent decline in fatalities.
This means that passengers in the front seats are more prone to injuries than those in the back seat. You should therefore make sure that your child is strapped to the backseat to reduce their chances of getting fatal injuries in an MVC.
Secure Your Child’s Safety
Statistics show that about 2 million people get injured every year from MVCs in the US. You can make sure that your children have a lower risk of experiencing life-threatening car accidents in the future.
You might allow your children to sit in the front seat because of insufficient knowledge of the proper use of child restraints in vehicles. However, when you don’t use proper restraints for your kids in the car, you expose them to the risk of life-threatening injuries.
The state of Texas has ensured that all the information regarding the use of booster seats is at your disposal. You can keep your child safe by studying the above information and following booster seat requirements in Texas.
