Schools  ◊  Jobs  ◊  Parents  ◊  FAQs  ◊  Forms  ◊  Newcomers  ◊  Lunch Menus

Booster Seat Advocates talk to Joyner kindergratners about new law


Jan Parker presents booster seat to Sherrod and then helps him to be safely seated in the backseat of his family's car.

Nov. 8, 2004 - The new law that requires a booster seat to keep young children safe in vehicles was explained by state highway safety officials and lawmakers to a group of kindergarteners at Joyner Elementary School.

"Studies consistently show that children between the ages of 5 and 8 who ride in booster seats are significantly safer than those who ride in adult safety belts alone," Darrell Jernigan of the Governor's Highway Safety Program told the students. "Our goal is to help families understand the lifesaving benefits of booster seats and to help provide them to families who might otherwise not be able to afford them."

The upgrade to the child passenger safety law, signed by Gov. Easley in August, goes into effect on January 1, 2005. It will require all children up to age 8 or weighing less than 80 pounds to ride in a booster seat before graduating to an adult safety belt. Drivers who fail to ensure that child occupants are safely restrained face a fine of $125 and two driver license points.

Jernigan was joined by Senator Bill Purcell and Representative Jennifer Weiss who talked in the school's media center Oct. 29 with the children about the benefits of the booster seats.

Jernigan and Jan Parker, safety officer with the Raleigh Fire Department, presented a booster seat to Joyner Elementary parent Cassandra Tucker and her son, Sherrod. Parker placed the new booster seat in Tucker's car while reporters took pictures.

Jernigan said federal funding will provide booster seats and other child restraint devices to low-income families across North Carolina. The seats will be provided at a minimal cost to qualified families through community-based NC SAFE KIDS coalitions. The initial supply of booster seats for statewide distribution will be available by January when the law goes into effect. Additional seats are expected in time for North Carolina child Passenger Safety Week in February.

Flyers about the new booster seat law are available in English and Spanish on the Governor's Highway Safety program website at http://www.ncdot.org/secretary/ghsp More information is available at the North Carolina Child Passenger Safety Resource Center at 1-800-672-4527 or http://www.buckleup.org

-wcpss-