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Car Seat Failure
Benefits of Monheit Law
Benefits of Retaining Monheit Law, A Law
Firm Experienced with Car Seat Failure Cases
www.monheit.com/benefits.asp
Web Resources
Other sites that discuss car seats
www.monheit.com/web.asp
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Car Seat Laws
States were slow to enact laws to prevent injuries and death caused by not
using child car seat safety restraints or improperly made infant car seat
systems. Today state laws require infant car seats as well as booster car
seats for children and other motor vehicle safety requirements. Prevention and
proper restraining is a key component to a safe ride.
Each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia has its own set of child
occupant protection laws. The laws vary widely in age requirements, seating
positions, exemptions, enforcement, and penalties. If you're caught with your
child improperly restrained in one state, you might face a stiff fine, but in
another state you'd get the proverbial slap on the wrist.
In 2001, the federal government required passenger vehicles and child restraints
to feature LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children). LATCH was supposed to
eliminate the need to use the car's seat belt to hold down the car seat. LATCH
was designed to standardize installation and reduce guesswork. (Note that the
LATCH requirement only applies to vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating,
GVWR, under 8,500 pounds. Some manufacturers, such as Ford and General Motors,
have voluntarily installed LATCH on many of its full-size trucks and vans. All
child restraints are required to feature LATCH except car beds and boosters.)
A LATCH-compliant vehicle has metal anchors, usually located on the seat back or
rear bulkhead, to hold the car seat's upper tether. It also has lower anchor
points in the seat crack — the place where cookie crumbs usually hide — to
receive the metal LATCH connectors built into the lower part of car seats.
California has, by far, the best vehicle child protection laws in the country.
It requires all children age 15 and under to be restrained in some manner.
Children ages 5 and under and weighing less than 60 pounds must be in an
appropriate child safety seat. Starting January 1, 2005, this seat is required
to be in the back. However, the state still does not expressly require use of
booster seats for children ages 6 and 7 — something pediatricians and child
safety advocates strongly recommend.
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