At the tireless urging of Sen. Les Donovan, R-Wichita, the Kansas Senate has passed a booster seat bill four times, only to see it expire in the House over concerns that it’s too intrusive in family life. But the research and anecdotes about these seats prodded the collective conscience of House lawmakers into finally approving the legislation Monday on a 90-29 vote. If the bill clears the Senate again, parents will begin to risk a $60 fine if they fail to put their 4- through 7-year-olds in booster seats. But some parents also will be spared the heartbreak of seeing their child killed or injured in crashes. Our editorial today notes that as reasons to pass a law go, that’s as good as it gets.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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14 Comments
I fail to see the importance of this bill for children over the age of 5. Seven year old children are generally in the second grade! How demeaning to be put in a booster seat! Generally when a bill such as this is pursued, needs to look at whose pocketbook or billfold will benefit the most. It certainly won’t the the parents of these children who the legislators are attempting to “protect”.
I don’t have any children, but I don’t even know what a booster seat looks like. I’ve seen the baby seats and those usually can accompany children to the age of 3.
I haven’t seen a booster seat though.
Joe – I have seen booster seats and agree with Les on this. The one ‘fine-tuning’ that I might suggest would be to go by size instead of age.
I have a very different view of kids seats and seat belts. I figure if WE choose to French-kiss the windshield that is OUR choice; with kids I don’t give that “freedom”
Typical government crap laws…
Most people who don’t use child seats either can’t afford them, are too lazy to use them, or are uneducated about them.
If you want to see people use child seats then lets start some charity program to provide them for poor families who don’t buy them.
Lets make getting your license involve class time on the consequences of not using a child seat. Like showing them pictures of what happens to your child as they fly through the front winsshield. Explain physics to them so they understand that their 30lb kid is going to be a 30lb missle. That trying to hold onto your kid at 25 mph is not going to work…
This would give better results.
What does fining them do?
The lazy people are still going to be lazy untill they probably get caught once or twice and have to pay that ticket.
The poor people already can’t afford the seat so the ticket is not going to help that situation at all.
The uneducated people might end up getting tired of getting tickets, but won’t know untill they are caught.
So how does this law really help anyone again?
The least they could do is maybe add mandatory class time for those caught without a seat.
It is laws like these that make me sick of lawmakers regardless of them being democrats or republicans. It is just another stupid law that really doesn’t work.
This is nothing but election year legislation. Incumbents will be able to campaign on how much they care about the children.
What has been accomplished here is that we have defined another avenue for SRS to be able to remove your children. Get two tickets and find yourself in court trying desperately to hold onto what your family. The law may not say that today, but it will at some point.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure some lives will be saved by this bill. However you can’t track that and really justify the legislation. Families will be torn apart over this.
In the end, children are the parents responsibility. Ever increasing government regulation into parenting is bad for families and the republic.
I have to defend Les on this one; he has been pushing for this for years. It is my belief that he is sincere in this. I don’t always agree with Les on many issues but do on this one.
Rhonda,Booster seat laws would be too intrusive to family life? What about seat belt laws then? Is that also “intrusive” to family life? Kind of a stretch don’t you think?
Seat Belt laws are stupid too.
It’s a small price to pay to make children safer when they ride in cars. I don’t see it as being “intrusive” or stepping on anyone’s “rights”. Pick your battles carefully, there are much bigger civil rights issues in this country to worry about.
Damoon, dont ya love it how some of these people worry about their “rights” when it comes to seat belts and the rights of parents to marry off their 15 year old children, but then they rush to give away their right to protection from illegal wiretaps.
Yeah. There is a stretch that only makes sense to the righties. You are correct about picking battles. So much easier to fight the little ones and ignore the big ones.
You have no “right” to call terrorists in other countries to plot to attack america.
Nathan is right that the law will do nothing to make kids safer.
This is not about some overarching libertarian view of intrusive government; it’s about the small, simple fact that there are things that the government cannot actually fix.
As a foster parent who has attended numerous juvenile court hearings,I know that the biggest problem isn’t the laws or lack of them; it’s the complete cluelessness and ignorance of so many parents.
People who can’t or don’t read, and who certainly can’t afford to read the newspaper, won’t know a thing about a new booster seat law; nor will they care.
If charities make the seats available, and if good people take the time to help clueless parents understand how to use them, then there is hope.
Otherwise, forget it.
If you are a good person, then give your time to be helpful. Otherwise, take your megalo-government impotence and butt out.
For those of you above who have questioned the utility of a booster seat for children, you need to know that kids are often killed by internal injuries in accidents because seats and seat belts are designed for adults.
There is no way to make a seat and its associated restraints safe for every person of every every size and weight. This is an engineering fact.
A child was killed in Wichita last year because of this problem. He was in the back seat and he was buckled into a standard car seat without a booster seat. The accident was not all that severe. The adult in the front seat was not seriously injured. The young boy died anyway.
Question it all you want. The facts support the use of booster seats for most kids under 7 years old — unless you don’t care whether they live or die. Then you just pay the $60 fine and it’s all OK, I guess.
Or not.
The idea that booster seats will damage a child’s self esteem is such a dicredited piece of 1980s witchcraft that it doesn’t warrant a rebuttal. Do you hear me, Jan Koelsch?
I agree that kids need to be more secure in the car. I think this should be based on height/weight and not age. Some kids are bigger then others. Also if they are going to make it a law to be in a booster seat until 7 then are they going to be installing them in the buses that the kids ride in everyday to school.