Seat up for Safety

Before making it a law Ohio had one of the lowest booster seat use rates in the country. A reminder that now booster seats are required for children until they are 8 or 4 foot 9.

Since October 2009 the law has been in place. Before the law, only 18% of children 4-8 had a booster seat. Research shows using one with a seat belt reduces crash injury by more than half. Not using one is a secondary offense.

"It’s exactly the same way we would enforce a seat belt law. You may have a primary traffic offense, a lanes violation, speed, something other than that or a vehicle defect. Maybe you got a headlight out or a license plate light ; We’ll stop you on that and if you are not wearing your seat belt we will take enforcement for that" said Lieutenant Steven R. Rine.

Booster seats are used after child safety seats and most kids are ready for the change at 4 years old or 40 pounds.

"It’s up where it needs to be to protect them in case you get into an impact. so it’s going to properly position the belt to restrain the child in the car " said Rine.

Even after 8 when a child no longer needs a seat  the child should be able to sit back in the seat with his or her legs over the edge.