Virginia Law News

skaterbabs

Well-known member

• Jan 24, 2008

• #1

You guys may want to keep up on these:

HB1065: Safety belts; makes non-use thereof primary offense.
Chief Patron: Del. Kris Amundson (D-44)
http://www.richmondsunlight.com/bill/2008/hb1065/



SB649: Motor vehicle safety belt systems; repeals language that makes nonuse secondary offense.
Chief Patron: Sen. Patsy Ticer (D-30)
http://www.richmondsunlight.com/bill/2008/sb649/


HB1535: Safety belts; makes non-use thereof primary offense.
Chief Patron: Del. William Barlow (D-64)
http://www.richmondsunlight.com/bill/2008/hb1535/


And of course the one we all want to defeat :thumbsdown: :

HB225: Child restraint devices; exempts children being transported in minibuses and certain vans.
Chief Patron: Del. John Cosgrove (R-78)
http://www.richmondsunlight.com/bill/2008/hb225/

 

crunchierthanthou

New member

• Jan 24, 2008

• #2

Hey, we have a passenger saftey bill sponsored by a Cosgrove, too. Except it's boosters til age 8, so I'm pulling for that one to pass.

 

AdventureMom

Senior Community Member

• Jan 25, 2008

• #3

crunchierthanthou said:

Hey, we have a passenger saftey bill sponsored by a Cosgrove, too. Except it's boosters til age 8, so I'm pulling for that one to pass.

Click to expand...

I thought that one had already passed... ?

 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician

• Jan 25, 2008

• #4

I noticed the click it or ticket campaign this year was a lot more worded toward it being a primary offense than last year... Now I understand why!

 

crunchierthanthou

New member

• Jan 25, 2008

• #5

AdventureMom said:

I thought that one had already passed... ?

Click to expand...

I'm in a different state. We're still hoping to join the other 39 states with booster laws.

We've also got a primary offense seatbelt bill, but I have very little hope for that one- too many rural representatives shoot it down every year.

 

Mattkarn

Member

• Jan 25, 2008

• #6

On another note, on the Safe Kids website it has the laws wrong for VA. It says kids only need an age appropriate seat till 5 years old, when it is 8 years old as of June 07. I have e-mailed them more than once about this, any other ideas on how to get them to correct it?

 

Kat_Momof3

New member

• Jan 26, 2008

• #7

Actually, I believe it was as of July... I'm almost positive because Jeffrey turned 6 in July.

 

skaterbabs

Well-known member

• Jan 26, 2008

• #8

Mattkarn said:

On another note, on the Safe Kids website it has the laws wrong for VA. It says kids only need an age appropriate seat till 5 years old, when it is 8 years old as of June 07. I have e-mailed them more than once about this, any other ideas on how to get them to correct it?

Click to expand...

It was effective July 1st, and yes SK has it wrong. It hasn't been four for a very long time. Since, oh, 2001 or so.

 

Mattkarn

Member

• Jan 26, 2008

• #9

Ha, ok I will just forget about it then. I was guessing it was about June, I wasn't sure, but I new it was now 8 years old and thats all that counts. I have used it to get some parents to put their children back into boosters.

 

skaterbabs

Well-known member

• Jan 26, 2008

• #10

Yeah, it's through the 8th birthday. IIRC, it was changed to 6 from 4 in '01 or so.

 

skaterbabs

Well-known member

• Jan 28, 2008

• #11

bump

 

A

Airforcemomma

New member

• Jan 28, 2008

• #12

I use to live in Virginia but moved to Ontario Canada in June of 2003. The booster seat law in Ontario Canada is 4'9 and 80lbs or 8 yrs old to use an adult seat belt. And that is just a guide line.
By the time my son turns 8 he will still be too small for an adult seat belt and at the very minimum will be in a BPB until he's between 10-12yrs old based on his size. I know alot of parents will go by the age of 8 yrs old without actually considering the size of their child. The way the law is worded needs to be changed so that all criteria surrounding age , weight and height are met instead of just leaving it up to the parents to say "OK my child is 8 now , they no longer need to be restrained in a child seat" When in many cases the child will still be too small for an adult seat belt to fit correctly.

 

skaterbabs

Well-known member

• Feb 11, 2008

• #13

While I agree that the law needs to better protect kids 8 and up, the current law is a HUGE improvement over the previous law. Laws were never intended to be the ceiling of what's safe, just a minimum for parents who can't, won't or don't know to do better.

 

Simplysomething

New member

• Feb 11, 2008

• #14

skaterbabscpst said:

Yeah, it's through the 8th birthday. IIRC, it was changed to 6 from 4 in '01 or so.

Click to expand...

It was changed the year my nephew turned 6 (the one who is the same age as one of your boys, I think. lol). So, 2002. And it changed to age 8, when ds1 was 7 (or, you know, 2007).

While I'd love a height clause in there, I'll take age 8 over age 6 for now. Skater is right, the law is the floor, not the ceiling.