Review of United States Car Safety Seat State Laws: Lessons Learned

Abstract

Car safety seat laws and professional guidance, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Child Passenger Safety recommendations, are essential for parents and health care providers when choosing an appropriate car seat. This project reviewed car safety seat state laws for commonalities, variations, and themes. Car safety seat laws for all 50 states and the District of Columbia (N = 51) were reviewed through electronic sources. Data collection focused on gathering common legislative language in each car safety seat grouping. All car safety seat laws were based on age, height, weight, manufacturer limit, any combination of these, or were not specified. The most common category result was “age only” except for rear-facing car safety seats, which was “not specified.” Variations in clarity, terminology, and completeness were found. Owing to great variance in AAP and state laws, health care providers should use AAP guidelines, know their specific state's car safety seat laws, and advocate for legislation to meet or exceed AAP guidelines.