*New Child Restraint Laws in NY as of 3/27*
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion Archive: Archive February 2005:
*New Child Restraint Laws in NY as of 3/27*
Observer-Dispatch
February 21, 2005 Monday
SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. 1A
HEADLINE: New child-seat law around corner
BYLINE: Krista J. Karch
Safety restraints will be required for 6 and younger
By KRISTA J. KARCH
About half of Melissa Engelhart's 32 young charges don't ride in car seats.
That's Engelhart's estimate, but even if just one of the 4-year-olds she
cares for at The Neighborhood Center on Mary Street in Utica is driven away from
day care without special child restraints, she believes it's cause for concern.
And next month, it will be cause for a traffic ticket.
Beginning March 27, children ages 6 and younger traveling in New York state
must be strapped into car seats. It is the first expansion to the law since
1981, when children ages 3 and younger were required to be in car seats, said
Bill Van Alstyne, a child passenger safety advocate for Albany County.
"It's going to be a big change," Engelhart said.
Some parents of 4-, 5- and 6-year-olds have given their safety seats away,
said Amy Appler-Scaccia, a first-grade teacher at General Herkimer Elementary
School in Utica. They thought they were over that phase, she said, but most
don't question the change because they know their children are safer in the seats.
"New York state law, I'm sure, has research supporting this," she said. "If
this is best for my child, I want to do this."
Appler-Scaccia gave away a car seat used by her daughter, Sydney, 5, but said
she'll replace it over the winter school vacation this week.
School buses are exempt from the law, Van Alstyne said.
The law allows parents of children who are at least 4 feet 9 inches tall a
defense against a traffic ticket issued because the child was not in a
child-safety seat.
Police officers will not measure children at the roadside, said Sgt. Jon Lupo
of the state police Traffic Services Division.
"If at the time you appear in court you can prove to the judge that your
child is at least 57 inches tall then, provided that the child was in a safety
belt, the judge can summarily dismiss the ticket," Lupo said.
It's unlikely that Daniel Banas will ever use that defense, even if his son,
Kody - already tall for a 5-year-old - surpasses the height requirement before
he turns 7.
"If the seat's going to save his life, why would you object?" he said moments
before strapping Kody into a safety seat.
Banas said a car accident sent him through a windshield when he was 9 years
old, so he takes precautions to save his own son from a similar experience.
"If he got hurt or died, how could I live with myself for not taking that
extra five minutes?" he said, tightening Kody's straps before leaving the
Neighborhood Center's parking lot.
Kierstyn Famolaro is 4 years old, but she obligingly ducks her head while she
is strapped into a safety harness. She's old enough - at least until March 27
- to forgo the precaution, but her father, Anthony Famolaro, said he wasn't
comfortable relying on a vehicle's built-in belts.
"The seat belt was cutting into her," he said. "She was just too little."
But even parents with the best intentions frequently err when installing the
safety seat, Van Alstyne said.
A recent safety-seat event Van Alstyne conducted in Albany revealed that of
141 safety seats offered by parents for inspection, only five were installed
correctly.
Anyone using child safety seats in their vehicles should have an installation
inspection, Lupo said.
"State police has among its ranks about 150 troopers who are nationally
certified as child passenger safety technicians," Lupo said. "These troopers (work)
at fitting stations - state police stations where parents can get assistance
with installation of child-safety seats."
But many child passenger safety advocates say that, often, even children
older than the age of 6 are better off in a safety seat, and specific
dimension-based standards aren't enough.
"The children ages four to eight - we call them the forgotten children," Van
Alstyne said. "They're not as best taken care of as they should be in
vehicles."
Children in car accidents have died, he said, because of pressure from
ill-fitting lap belts cutting into internal organs in the stomach.
Children older than 4 have a higher rate of injury that younger children,
according to SafetyBeltSafe U.S.A., a California-based safety-seat advocacy
group. Those children tend to move the shoulder belt under the arm or behind the
back, and slide forward or slouch down.
Van Alstyne, who conducts car-seat workshops and trains child passenger
safety technicians in Albany County, said he has recommended that certain children
be kept in safety devices as old as the age of 10.
"Parents never think to do that, because they think the child is too old,"
said SafetyBeltSafe U.S.A. Executive Director Stephanie Tombrello.
Some children who are as tall as adults may still need to use a safety seat,
Tombrello said. Standard seat belts may not be secure over a child's smaller
bone structure and the lap belt will creep up, she said.
To help parents determine their child's need, Tombrello developed what she
calls the "5-Step Test." If a parent cannot affirmatively answer each of the
five questions in the test, the child, regardless of age, height or weight,
should be in a safety seat.
"That way, you can really know," Tombrello said. "Even if the law says six or
seven or nine, if it doesn't fit the child, then you need to look at using
boosters."
More than 30 different safety seats are on display at Toys R Us on Commercial
Drive in New Hartford, from a basic backless booster for $20 to a deluxe
model for more than $200.
Booster-seat sales are up since the change in the law was announced, sales
associate Robin Cieslak said.
Every 30 minutes, the store's PA system reminds shoppers of changes in the
state's safety-seat law and directs them to the safety-seat display.
The store ordered new booster models designed to help ease older children
back into the seats, store manager Jim Safford said.
"If you're a seven-year-old that's been out of a booster seat, the new Graco
Turbo Booster feels more like a regular car seat," he said.
The Turbo Booster is a streamlined version of a car seat, with slide-out cup
holders, an adjustable back and an absence of foam padding. At $49.99, the
seat is recommended for kids weighing between 30 and 100 pounds, and who are from
38 to 57 inches tall.
Certain vehicles are designed to assist parents with the proper installation
of safety seats.
At Carbone Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep on Commercial Drive in Yorkville, salespeople
are not allowed to fit a safety seat into a vehicle for a new owner, but a
"latch and anchor system" in some Chrysler models makes installations simple,
salesman Joe Scialdone said.
"It secures a child seat a lot better than a seat belt can, but they still
have to use the seat belt," he said.
For many families, designer safety seats and new vehicles are unaffordable
luxuries, but New York state and some organizations, including the Mid-York
Child Care Council, provide free safety seats for qualifying families.
Engelhart said the staff at The Neighborhood Center will assist parents in
applying for the safety seats.
"We'll do whatever we need to do to help parents who can't afford them,"
Engelhart said.
Contact Krista J. Karch at kkarch@utica.gannett.com
WHOM TO CALL
For information on free child-safety seats through the Mid-York Child Care
Council, call 315-339-8450.
The law
E Children ages 6 and younger are required to be in safety devices while
traveling in New York state.
E Parents of children who are age 6 or younger but are taller than 4-feet-9
can use that child's height as a defense in court if they are ticketed with
failure to use a child-safety device.
E Drivers and passengers of any age riding in the front seat of a vehicle are
required to wear seat belts.
E Children ages 15 and younger riding in the back seat of a vehicle are
required to wear seat belts.
Source: Christine Burling, spokeswoman for the New York state Department of
Motor Vehicles
Common mistakes
E Safety seat installed incorrectly.
E The seat's harness system is too loose on the child.
E The seat-belt system is too loose and not tight around the car seat.
E Children who should be in boosters are in regular seat belts.
E Facing infants forward before 1 year old and before weighing 20 lbs.
E Allowing children to sit in the front seat.
E Faulty safety seat.
E For information on safety-seat recalls, go to www.carseat.org
Source: Bill Van Alstyne, child passenger safety advocate for Albany County
Where to go
A safety-seat fitting station is at state police headquarters, Route 5,
Oneida, and is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the first Saturday of each month. For
more information, to find out where other fitting stations are located or to
make an appointment, call 315-366-6032.
Safety tips
E Children are safer when properly restrained in the back seat.
E Children should ride rear-facing until they are at least 1 year old and
weigh at least 20 lbs. Children who reach 20 lbs. before 1 year of age should
ride rear-facing in a convertible seat, as long as the top of the child's head is
at least one inch below the top of the shell of the car seat. Never place a
rear-facing child-safety seat in the front seat of a vehicle equipped with
passenger air bags.
E For maximum protection, keep a child in a forward-facing child safety seat
with an internal harness until they reach the manufacturer's recommendations
for upper-size limits.
E Children who have outgrown child-safety seats should be properly restrained
in booster seats until they can fit into an adult safety belt properly.
E Always follow installation instructions that come with the child-safety
restraint system and in your vehicle owner's manual.
E The best child-safety restraint system is one that fits your child, fits
your car and can be installed correctly on every ride.
E Properly securing a child into the child-safety restraint system and
properly securing the child-safety restraint system with the vehicle's seat belts
are equally critical.
Source: Christine Burling, spokeswoman for the New York state Department of
Motor Vehicles
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