Gov. Jay Inslee today signed into regulation updated policies on automobile-seat and booster-seat use in Washington country. The updated regulation will cross into effect on Jan. 1, 2020.
Dr. Beth Ebel of UW Medicine
UW Medicine pediatrician Beth Ebel researches transportation protection at Harborview’s Injury Prevention and Research Center.
Under the revised law:
Children below age 2 must use rear-facing car seats. Children need to remain in a rear-facing automobile safety seat as long as possible until they reach the highest weight or top allowed with the aid of their seat.
Children aged 2 to at least four years must use a forward-facing, age-suitable baby harness seat – and accomplish that so long as viable, till they attain the seat’s height and weight limits. Many seats can accommodate kids as much as sixty-five pounds.
Children who are older than 4 but shorter than four feet nine” have outgrown the kid harness seat and need to use booster seats. Most kids will want a booster seat till 10 to 12 years of age.
When kids are old enough and massive enough to use the car seat belt by themselves, they must use lap and shoulder seat belts for the most suitable protection.
As with the preceding regulation, drivers may be ticketed if a passenger under 16 doesn’t use the precise automobile seat, booster seat, or seat belt based on their age, height, or weight.
“These changes will assist parents in protecting their kids on the road,” stated Dr. Beth Ebel, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a member of the Washington State American Academy of Pediatrics. “This alternative brings us in step with present-day high-quality, considering maintaining kids safe.”
The changes align Washington’s law with the most current guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics, issued in 2011.
Ebel, who researches transportation safety on the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center and cares for injured kids at Harborview Medical Center, has testified in aid of a stronger regulation for 3 years.
“Harborview is the handiest Level 1 nearby trauma center for kids who’ve life-threatening injuries. For example, catastrophic car-crash injuries we’ve seen to youngsters’ brains, organs, and nervous systems might have been preventable had the child been buckled in the appropriate automobile seat.”
There are significantly fewer extreme injuries and fatalities in head-on crashes while babies are rear-facing with seats, which better guard their still-growing heads and necks. In older kids, poorly fitted seatbelts are associated with accidents to the backbone, intestines, head, and neck. Ebel stated she frequently sees children eight to twelve years of age “with absolutely preventable injuries, even at highly sluggish speeds like 30 miles in step with hour.”
Such injuries may be averted by way of the proper booster seat, which correctly positions the seat belt in opposition to the child till they are tall enough to use the automobile’s seat belt on their own.
“When I talk to mother and father about infant protection, they are saying, ‘Why isn’t this the law?’” Ebel stated. “Now that Washington law is updated, more families will comply with those tips, and more kids will come domestic securely. At the end of the day, that’s what’s essential.”
