Booster Seats

Child Safety:

HB 1098 makes Indiana's child-restraint law one of the toughest in the nation by requiring children to ride in car seats or booster seats until age 8. The bill will require children under 4 to use child safety seats, those ages 4-8 to use booster seats and those under 16 to wear a seat belt in all vehicles. Current law requires safety seats until age 4 and seat belts until age 12, as well as drivers and front-seat passengers to wear seat belts in noncommercial vehicles.
The law will allow the police to pull drivers over for violations, which would be a $25 fine with no license points, but parents would not have to pay if they later prove they have a booster seat or that their kids can sit properly without it. The law would also extend to pickup trucks and SUVs registered as trucks for the first time. Parents and law enforcement officers will have a year to prepare, since the measure does not take effect until July 1, 2005.

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