Report Title:

Child Passenger Safety; Safety Seat and Booster Seat Use

 

Description:

Requires children between the ages of 4 and 8 and under 80 pounds to be placed in a safety seat or booster seat when traveling in a motor vehicle. (SD1)

 

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

202

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

S.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO CHILD PASSENGER SAFETY.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that while great strides have been made to protect infants and toddlers in motor vehicle crashes, preschoolers and young children under eight years of age remain at high risk of injury. The legislature recognizes that only six per cent of children who should be riding in booster seats are estimated to be using one. These youngsters are often placed in standard adult safety belts that can cause internal injuries and death for children in an auto accident. The legislature finds that seat belts are designed for older children and adults, not for children under eight years of age whose size and physical development make seat belts less effective and, in some cases, unsafe. The legislature further finds that in Hawaii, although it is legal for children between the ages of four and eight to ride restrained only with seat belts, this practice exposes these children to unnecessary risk.

The purpose of this Act is to increase the safety of Hawaii's children by amending Hawaii's child passenger restraint law to reflect the recommendations of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board that children between the ages of four and eight and weighing under eighty pounds be properly secured in an appropriate booster seat.

SECTION 2. Section 291-11.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

"(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, no person operating a motor vehicle on a public highway in the State shall transport a child under [four] eight years of age [unless] except under the following circumstances:

(1) If the child is under four years of age, the person operating the motor vehicle [ensures] shall ensure that the child is properly restrained in a child passenger restraint system [approved by the United States Department of Transportation] that meets Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards at the time of its manufacture[.]; or

(2) If the child is four years of age or older but less than eight years of age and under eighty pounds, the person operating the motor vehicle shall ensure that the child is properly restrained in a child safety seat or booster seat that meets Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards at the time of its manufacture; provided that when traveling in a motor vehicle equipped only with lap belts in the rear seat, without shoulder straps, children over sixty pounds shall be exempt from the requirements of this section."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on January 1, 2002.