Oregon Child Car Seat Laws and The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA)

                                                                                                                11/20/14




The other day I ran across child seat belt information, and I decided I might cover it in a post. Here is that post, and I will provide some information and the links to sources to get more information at the end. I researched both Oregon laws and information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA).  Oregon laws are pretty easy to understand, but there is a "national" "best practice recommendation" and it appears that is where things can get into a gray area. To my knowledge, the NHTSA helps to provide information to answer your general questions about the gray area and can offer guidelines that would probably cover all states.

Today, I am providing the basic text from Oregon.gov./odot to help resolve some people's questions quickly. For more detailed information, visit the links I have provided below.

For those that are interested in training, Oregon has scheduled courses on  child passenger safety. Please note that from my research there is a fee charged for courses.  The information on the fee schedule for courses can be found at this link here:  http://cert.safekids.org/resources-faqs/fees


Good luck and let's keep those kids safe in the proper child seating restraints!


Information Taken From: http://www.oregon.gov/odot/ts/Pages/safetybelts.aspx
Oregon Laws:

"CHILD RESTRAINT LAW

Child passengers must be restrained in approved child safety seats until they weigh forty pounds or reach the upper weight limit for the car seat in use. Infants must ride rear-facing until they reach both one year of age AND twenty pounds.

 

BOOSTER SEAT LAW

Children over forty pounds or who have reached the upper weight limit for their forward-facing car seat must use boosters to 4'9" tall or age eight and the adult belt fits correctly.

REAR SEATING FOR CHILDREN
There is no Oregon law specifically prohibiting children from riding in the front seat of passenger vehicles.  However, a rear-facing infant seat cannot be placed in a front seating position that is equipped with an airbag because this would violate Oregon's requirement for "proper use" of a child safety seat.  There is a national "best practice recommendation" calling for rear seating through age twelve.

 

NATIONAL "BEST PRACTICE" RECOMMENDATIONS

Safety experts have published guidelines which would keep children in each type of child seat longer than Oregon law prescribes, in addition to back seating through age twelve.  Click the link for the latest national best practices recommendations from USDOT National Highway Traffic Safety.

 

BELT OR BOOSTER?

Belt fit can vary greatly from one vehicle to another and one child to another. If your child meets Oregon's legal requirements for moving from a booster seat to safety belt but you still have doubts about whether your child fits in the belt in your particular vehicle, then the following simple test can help. Place your child in the vehicle without a booster seat and then ask these questions. Until you can answer YES to all of the questions, your child should stay in a booster seat.

1. Can the child sit all the way back against the vehicle seat?
2. Do the child's knees bend comfortably at the edge of the seat?
3. Does the shoulder belt cross the shoulder between the neck and arm?
4. Is the lap belt as low as possible, touching the thighs?
5. Can the child stay comfortably seated like this for the whole trip?  

MOTOR HOMES

Motor homes are considered passenger vehicles under Oregon law and as such, adult belt and child seat requirements apply also to motor homes --- but only to forward-facing vehicle seating positions(those meeting federal safety standards for seat belt anchorages).   Therefore, occupants should utilize all forward-facing belted positions before using side or rear-facing positions.

 

COMMERCIAL VEHICLES

Oregon's safety belt law requires occupants of privately-owned commercial vehicles transporting 15 or fewer persons to use safety restraints including occupants of shuttles, taxis, limousines and vans.  Among these types of vehicles, taxi cab drivers are the only occupants excepted from this rule.
 

ATVS

Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is the implementing agency for laws and rules relating to use of restraints on ATVs.

 

MEDICAL EXEMPTIONS

ORS 811.220 The Director of Transportation shall issue a certificate of exemption under ORS 811.215 for any person on whose behalf a statement signed by a physician is presented to the Department of Transportation. For a physician's statement to qualify under this section, the physician giving the statement must set forth reasons in the statement why the use of a child safety seat system, or safety belt or safety harness by the person would be impractical or harmful to the person by reason of physician condition, medical problem or body size.

 

A safety restraint exemption cannot be issued for commercial drivers per Federal Code 392-16."

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For information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,  it can be found at these links:


http://www.safercar.gov/parents/index.htm

http://www.safercar.gov/parents/Car-Seat-Safety.htm