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WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi and Congresswoman Katie Porter reintroduced the Booster Seat Safety Act, which addresses the dangers that were revealed in their December 2020 report through the House Oversight Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy on the safety gaps in the booster seat industry. In their report, the members uncovered that leading booster seat manufacturers continued to market booster seats that were unsafe for children under 40 pounds as safe to use for children as light as 30 pounds. At the same time, a number of the companies touted that their booster seats had been side impact-tested even though the manufacturers created their own testing conditions that set standards low enough for the seats to pass every time — even when crashes would lead to catastrophic injuries. Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death among children in the United States.
The Booster Seat Safety Act, which has six original cosponsors, in addition to Reps. Krishnamoorthi and Porter, would tackle these issues by establishing clear standards for booster seat labeling and safety testing. To address the misleading claims made by manufacturers and the risks associated with children under 40 pounds and 4 years of age using booster seats, the bill would mandate clear labeling of these safety recommendations. To solve the issues surrounding booster seat side impact testing and the claims of manufacturers, the legislation requires the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to issue standards for the near-side and far-side side impact testing of booster seats while also providing guidelines for the creation of a new testing dummy specifically designed for six-year-old children.
“As Chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer policy, I was proud to help lead the congressional investigation into booster seat safety, which revealed dangerous gaps in standards that exist both in the booster seat industry and with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.” Congressman Krishnamoorthi said. “Our investigation highlighted the potential for serious injury and death due to inadequate booster seat safety protections. As parents, we expect all booster seats to be safe, but sadly, that is not the case. To help parents, Congress must regulate the booster seat industry to ensure it provides accurate safety recommendations and testing data on its products. As a father of three children, I want nothing more than to keep all our kids safe.”
“Parents have enough to worry about; they shouldn’t have to think twice about whether their kid’s booster seat is safe,” said Rep. Porter. “There’s ample evidence that some of the top booster seat manufacturers have been putting young children at risk by deceiving families about the safety of their products. Rep. Krishnamoorthi and I have led an investigation to hold these companies accountable, and today we are reintroducing common-sense legislation to better protect kids and prevent this kind of abuse in the future.”
The Booster Seat Safety Act does the following:
Labeling
Side-Impact Crash Testing
“When travelling with their children, families want to do everything possible to keep their children safe and protect them from life-threatening injuries. The Booster Seat Safety Act would help protect young children and save lives by ensuring booster seats meet strong and consistent safety standards. The American Academy of Pediatrics commends Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) and Katie Porter (D-Calif.) for their dedication to this issue and looks forward to the bill’s advancement,” said AAP President Sandy Chung, MD, FAAP.
Cathy Chase, President of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates), said, “It is a devastating tragedy that on average 1,000 children aged 14 and younger are being killed in motor vehicle crashes every year in the U.S., amounting to a leading cause of death. The best way to protect child passengers is to place them in the back seat, restrained by a properly installed child safety seat, booster seat or safety belt, as appropriate for their age, size and development. Advocates commends Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) and Katie Porter (D-CA) for their ongoing leadership with the reintroduction of the Booster Seat Safety Act which improves age, size and weight guideline labeling for the use of booster seats to provide clarity for parents and caregivers. It also requires the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to address critical safety gaps in our nation’s crash testing program for booster seat effectiveness during side impact crashes, among other upgrades. Child passengers cannot protect themselves. The commonsense countermeasures in this legislation will ensure that they are better protected in vehicles. We urge Congress to advance it with urgency.”
“To keep our youngest passengers safe, they must be properly secured in age and size-appropriate car seats. The National Safety Council has long advocated for and educated countless people toward this end,” said Tammy Franks, senior program manager of mobility safety at the National Safety Council. “We applaud Cong. Krishnamoorthi’s leadership on this issue and are pleased to support this legislation to ensure that size and weight requirements are clearly communicated to caregivers and that improvements are made to car seat testing standards.”
“Expanding booster seat crash safety tests and improving booster seat labeling will save lives and prevent serious injury,” said Anna Buhlinger, Director of Federal Affairs, National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies. “The Booster Seat Safety Act is an example of lawmakers identifying a problem and drafting thoughtful legislation that will have an immediate impact on child safety.”
Endorsing Organizations: American Academy of Pediatrics, Center for Auto Safety, Consumer Federation of America, Safe Kids Worldwide, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, National Safety Council, Nationwide, Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), Kids In Danger, American Property Casualty Insurance Association, State Farm, Amica Mutual Insurance Company, Kids and Car Safety, Society for the Advancement of Violence and Injury Research, National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), California Coalition for Children’s Safety and Health (CCCSH), Consumer Reports
For the bill text of the Booster Seat Safety Act, click here.
For the one-pager of the Booster Seat Safety Act, click here.
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