Officials To Issue Fines To Enforce Car Seat Law
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Last August, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed a law saying all children under two years old must be strapped into a car seat, which must be facing the back of the vehicle.
"They really need to be rear facing for as long as possible, because it's safer for them in a crash," said Sara Weir with the Mid-Atlantic Foundation for Safety and Education.
She says kids are more cradled and protected from neck and spinal cord injuries when facing the back of the car.
Weir says, besides now being illegal in Pennsylvania, young children facing forward in the car can be flat out dangerous.
"When they're forward-facing they don't have that support and their head can fly forward, and that's when we see a lot of kids that are injured," said Weir.
To mark the one year anniversary of this law, officials are going to start handing out fines to people who do not properly secure their kids.
"It's a $125.00 penalty, but at the same time I don't think there is any price on the safety of your child," Weir said.
She adds that if you can keep your child facing the rear of the car past two years old, that will work in their benefit in case of a crash or a hard stop.