New Child Restraint Law Effective January 1

Starting in January, a new law requires children under the age of 2 to ride in rear-facing car seats and children under the age of 8 to ride in a federally-approved car seat or booster seat, all in the back seat of the car.

In 2017, 8 children from ages newborn to 15 were killed on Nebraska roadways with another 472 being injured. Of those killed or injured, 40 percent were unbuckled.

Mark Segerstrom, road safety project coordinator for the Nebraska Safety Council, said the new law will help improve Nebraska’s safety rankings as well.

“Historically Nebraska has scored lower on national standards for traffic safety," Segerstrom said. "So hopefully by tightening up some of these standards, keeping our children safer, that will really help with our overall rating on some of these other standards and safety reports that come out annually.”

Segerstrom said another safety tip during the winter months is to not buckle children into child restraints with winter coats on, as the products were not designed to buckle that way. The Safety Council advises taking your child’s winter coat off prior to buckling your child for the highest level of safety.