July 15, 2008 02:50 pm
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As of Tuesday, Kentucky has a law requiring that children 7 and under who are between 40 and 50 inches tall must be in a booster seat. However, provisions of the new law clearly indicate that the state is not really very serious about enforcing it.
Efforts to add teeth to the law will come later. For now, the law’s supporters are willing to accept what they can get, which is somewhat less than what they really want.
Change in Kentucky often comes in small steps. Just as with the state’s mandatory seat belt law, supporters expect the law regarding booster seats will evolve into a much tougher law in the coming years.
For now, it is little more than a suggestion by the Kentucky General Assembly that having small children properly restrained in booster seats is an excellent idea that will save lives and reduce injuries in accidents.
However, violators of the new booster seat law will receive only warning tickets until July 1, 2009. After that, they will face only a $30 fine, which will be waived if those cited can prove they have purchased a booster seat before their scheduled court appearance. Only those who have not purchased a booster seat or have been previously cited will be fined — and a $30 fine is not going to send anyone to the poorhouse.
State Sen. Walter “Doc” Blevins, one of the sponsors of the booster seat bill, admits that it is less than what proponents wanted. “Some bill is better than no bill at all,” said the senator whose district includes Boyd County.
Blevins is right, of course, and no bill is what sponsors had gotten from previous efforts to enact bills to require booster seats. Similar bills had not come close to being approved during previous sessions of the General Assembly.
“We’ve needed a booster seat law for many years,” said Boyd Sigler, director of the Kentucky Office of Highway Safety. “We’ve got a good start with this booster seat law.”
Translation: This is not the final word on booster seats in Kentucky. Expect efforts to toughen the new law to continue.
When Kentucky became one of the final three states in the nation to enact a mandatory seat belt law, it was a weak law that carried only small fines and allowed only those who were stopped for other violations to be cited. It took more than a decade for the state to make seat belt use a primary offense in Kentucky.
Nevertheless, as soon as the General Assembly enacted even a weak mandatory seat belt law, the number of people buckling up in Kentucky increased significantly. Here’s hoping the same thing will happen with the new booster seat law.
Our observation is the booster seats are relatively rare in Kentucky. If the new law increases use — and surely it will among those Kentuckians who are conscientious about obeying even the laws with which they may not agree — it will save lives.
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