An upgrade to Nebraska's child passenger safety law will go into effect in July. LB 1073 was passed by the Nebraska Unicameral April 11, 2002 and signed by Governor Johanns on April 17th.
As of July 20, any person who drives any motor vehicle in Nebraska is required to ensure that all children up to their 6th birthday ride correctly secured in a child restraint system which meets Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. This is a step closer to the best safety practice guidelines taught to certified child passenger safety technicians through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's 32-hour course. Those guidelines advise that children should ride in belt-positioning boosters until about age 8.
The reasoning behind the age 8 guideline is very simple. Vehicle seat belts are designed for adult bodies. For that reason, children's bodies do not fit properly into the vehicle belt which can cause serious injuries and even death in a crash. There have been actual cases in which children who were too old to be in a child car safety seat by law were secured in their vehicle with a regular seat belt, only to be completely ejected from the belt and vehicle in a crash resulting in death. Such horrible fatalities are preventable with the simple use of booster seats.
Booster seats are the third step of child passenger safety, the first two being rear facing and forward facing child safety seats. The first two steps involve car seats that use some sort of internal harness system with the seat belt fastening the car seat to the vehicle. Booster seats function in a different manner. They simply raise a child up so that the lap belt crosses the strong hip bones and provide adjustment for the position of the shoulder belt. Without boosters, the lap belt rides up onto a child's soft abdominal tissues and the shoulder belt cuts up into the neck and chin. The improper lap belt positioning can cause major internal injuries that can be fatal in a car crash. The bad fit of the shoulder belt causes many children to place that portion of the belt either under their arm or behind their back-both of which can cause deadly crash injuries.
Children are big enough to ride in the regular cehicle belt alone when their back is against the back of the vehicle seat, their knees bend comfortably over the front of the seat, the lap belt rests across the hip bones and top of the thighs, the shoulder belt crosses the shoulder rather than cutting into the neck of chin and the child has the maturity to remain seated properly the entire trip. This typically does not occur until a child reaches at least 8 years of age.
Booster seats are relatively inexpensive and have been crash tested to ensure performance. Seat belt adjustment devices sold in many stores are not recommended for use. Their packaging may claim that they have been tested to crash test standards, however, there are no standards for such products.
The improvement to Nebraska's law only requires the use of child restraints (which includes booster seats) up to age 6, still leaving a safety gap for parents who look to the law as a minimum safety guideline. The new law has only an age requirement, no weight re quirement. Violation of this law is a primary offense with a $25.00 fine. School buses and emergency vehicles are exempt from this law, but daycares, school vans and out-of-state drivers are not. 
