New Minnesota child car safety seats law explained

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (FOX 9) - One of the new laws taking effect Aug. 1 in Minnesota changes the guidelines for putting kids in cars.

For one, booster seats are now required until the age of 9. And the way a child sits is determined by height, weight, and age.

The Department of Public Safety (DPS) pushed for the changes, but these new rules just add some confusion.

All kids need to stay in a rear-facing seat until they are at least 2-years-old and reach the height or weight limits of the seat.

At 4-years-old and the proper height and weight, they can graduate from a front-facing child safety seat to a booster seat.

Then, at 9-years-old, if they’ve outgrown the booster, they can stay in the back seat with a seat belt on if they understand how to wear it.

"It's just very confusing as to what I have to do," Parent Payton Morales said.

Safety experts say they want kids to face backwards as long as possible.

"That's the safest position in the vehicle," said Tara Helm of the Minnesota Safety Council. "It helps to protect a child's head, neck and spine by facing them backwards, because the most severe crash you get into is being hit in the front. So the car seat is designed to absorb those crash forces away from them."

Most parents understood the height and weight guidelines, which are usually right there on the safety seats, but they told FOX 9 the age restrictions made less sense.

"I would say that it's more of a medical decision which is really related to age, how tough their muscles are to hold their back up straight, things like that," said Sen. Jim Carlson, (DFL-Eagan).

Carlson helped pass the new law at the urging of DPS, and the agency used recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics. But it’ll take some buckling down for parents and grandparents to adjust.

"I guess it means that I'm going to have to buy more car seats," Morales said. "There's going to be a lot more shopping involving seats, and now I'm going to have to pay more attention to where my daughter goes and where I put her in the car."

As complicated as it may seem, data shows it’s worth the trouble.

The Minnesota Safety Council says almost 90% of kids suffer no injuries in a crash when they’re properly restrained. And deaths are extremely rare.