In a post yesterday, I posed the following riddle:
Yesterday, and for much of the past year, I regularly did something that was perfectly legal.
Starting today, if I do the same thing, I am breaking a New York State law.
What is it that I’m doing?
Among the most entertaining answers:
- Took a charitable deduction for a gift to the U.H.O. [United Homeless Organization] — @davethecfre
- Did New York finally go and make blogging illegal? — James Timmer
- Eating real butter at a restaurant? — Adam
But the correct answer came from a reader named Michael, a mere four minutes after the contest was posted:
Are you referring to the Booster Seat Law (to include children under 8, previously 6)?
And a few second later, UnsatisfiedMind chimed in with a slightly more correct answer:
Perhaps you are letting your 7-year-old child ride in the car without an “appropriate child safety restraint system.”
The second answer is slightly more accurate since, under the old state law, children aged out at 7 (not 6), but are now required to ride in a booster seat until they are 8 — unless they are four-feet-nine or weigh more than 100 pounds (in which case they could probably be doing the driving). In this case, we’ll send some schwag to both Michael and UnsatisfiedMind.
My youngest child turned 7 last February, and we tossed our booster seats long ago. But now, until she turns 8 in February, 2010, I am either a lawbreaker or a guy who needs to to buy another booster seat to use for the next few months even though my kid is bigger than she was when she legally stopped riding in a booster nine months ago. When the research I trust tells me there is no safety advantage to riding in a booster seat, what’s a parent supposed to do?
It should be said that New York is hardly an outlier here. As we write in SuperFreakonomics:
Instead of pushing for a better solution to child auto safety, state governments across the United States have been raising the age when kids can graduate from car seats. The European Union has gone even further, requiring most children to stay in booster seats until they are 12.
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So, how are they supposed to know that she’s 7? Tell the police that she’s 8, and there’s not much they can do. It’s not like they can demand her birth certificate during a traffic stop. Besides, if she looks big enough to be just fine in an adult seatbelt, I’m sure it won’t even enter anyone’s mind.
stay in a booster seat until age 12!?!? how long are they required to breast feed?
Young adults up until the age of 18 can’t vote. I guess that will be the maximum age government will require booster seats for.
If the size of the individual is the true determinant on the safety of the restraint device, why in the world is age part of the equation? It seems like a poor proxy at best.
If my 7 and 9 year olds are both 4’6″ and 85 pounds, why should the 7 year old be forced in to a booster seat while his older sister can ride freely using a standard seatbelt? This just seems silly.
12 is pretty extreme.
I am 25 and exactly the same height I was when I turned 13!
I’m no more qualified to ride in a big kids seatbelt now than I was in 6th grade!
Another example of the nanny-state. People can’t be trusted to make appropriate choices for themselves (or their children) in terms of safety so the state enacts a (typically heavy-handed or overneeded) law to cover it.
The early commenters are spot-on – how’s the cop to know the kid’s age? Will carrying the kid’s birth certificate now be mandatory? And, shouldn’t height/weight be the requirement rather than age? (At least the cops could carry a scale and a measuring tape.)
I knew a mother that did not meet the PA height and weight requirements to ride without a booster. Fortunately for her, she met the age requirement.
I’ve seen some little old ladies (and a few men) who peek out underneath the top edge of their steering wheel in their Buicks. If PASSENGERS under a height limit are required to use booster seats, shouldn’t DRIVERS be held to at least as stringent a standard? I think certain car brands should offer interior seating packages that cater to these smaller, elderly people that help give them more visibility and make them safer drivers.