Vehicle safety belts are designed to fit adult bodies and do not fit children until about age eight or until a child is over four feet nine inches tall. Because of a child's smaller body, if they are inappropriately restrained in a vehicle safety belt, they can be killed or seriously injured in a car crash. Because the safety belts do not fit a child properly, the belts are more likely to concentrate the crash forces on a child's sensitive internal organs instead on the stronger bones as they are designed to do in an adult. A belt positioning booster seat will raise the child so that the vehicle safety belts are position on the child's body properly.
When a child outgrows his/her safety seat, a belt positioning booster seat must be used. Unfortunately the practice of using a belt positioning booster seat among children 4-8 years of age remains low. It is estimated that children who are "prematurely graduated" so a safety belt are 3.5 times more likely to sustain severe injury and 4.2 times more likely to have severe head injury then those children properly restrained in a belt positioning booster seat.
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Contact Us:
Division of Injury & Violence Prevention
Virginia Department of Health
109 Governor St., 8th Floor
Richmond, VA 23219
Phone: 804-864-7732 Fax: 804-864-7748
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