By Chuck Mai, AAA It’s been 35 years since Tennessee passed the
first-in-the-nation child safety seat law. Now all states,
including Oklahoma, have them, to one degree or another. A
recent AAA survey showed that a majority of parents look to
state law for guidance on how to restrain their children in a
motor vehicle – but frankly, Oklahoma’s law needs work. It says
kids under six must be in a child passenger restraint system.
And it says children ages six through 12 must be in a child
passenger restraint or a seat belt. Ah, there’s the rub. That
part that says “or a seat belt.” Kids ages six and seven are too
small for the vehicle’s seat belt. In the event of a crash, the
belt tends to do more harm than good. Children those ages are
just too short. The answer is booster seats for that age group,
or any child weighing from about 40 to 80 pounds or more. But
the law doesn’t specifically mention booster seats, so many
parents don’t think to use them. Child car seats are complicated
and there are lots of do’s and