Miami Legal Tips Blog

Florida’s New Car Seat Law

Graco-Nautilus-3-in-1-Car-Seat-in-Valerie-P14151190As of January 1, 2015, there’s a new car seat law in Florida that some child advocates claim doesn’t meet the standards in other states. Or of those put forth by national safety experts.

The new law requires children to travel in federally approved car restraint seats through their third year of age. Then, depending on the size of the child, kids in the 4-5 age range will need to sit in a booster or car seat.

Karen Morgan, public policy manager for AAA The Auto Club Group in Tampa, told the Tampa Tribune, “We’ve been working on this bill for 14 years. It’s been a long time.”

Even so, there’s more work to do. Florida still doesn’t adhere to recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics that children ride in booster seats until they attain a height of 4 feet, 9 inches. This despite the fact, Morgan says, that a number of states require child-safety laws to apply through age 8.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the leading cause of death in American children between ages 5 and 14 is being improperly restrained when involved in traffic accidents.

The director of pediatric trauma surgery at Tampa General Hospital says that witnessing children who suffer from consequences of improper restraints is itself traumatic.

“I would say the entire health-care continuum is frustrated and saddened, from nurses and doctors to pharmacists and therapists,’’ said Charles Paidas. “It’s not just the child, either. We see what these devastating injuries do to the families as well.” He went on to note that roughly 100 children per year undergo trauma surgery at his hospital. Many of those, he says, would not have faced severe injuries had they been properly restrained. In fact, proper restraints could reduce those serious injuries by 50%.

While more needs to be done to bring Florida’s child safety laws in line with the rest of America, many child advocates are at least happy to see things take a step forward.

“It’s wonderful,” said one. “We have two more ages that are safer.”

With personal injury attorneys in Broward County, Miami, and Tallahassee, our firm is available to help you with auto accidents, slip and fall, and job related injuries. Contact one of our experts today!

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