Florida Car Seat laws

[grumpyskirtgirl]

Anyone know the current laws pertaining to age/height/weight requirements?

I've been told many things and even the info I find online is a bit convoluted.

I have a 5 & 7 year old, 42' & 48', 34 & 52 lbs. Do I need to bring their booster seats?

 

[Dsnyfireman]

If I was you I would call the county sheriffs office. Here in maine the local or county and state police have all the info and do safety seat checks for free. So maybe they do it there, and they should know the law the best I would hope! LOL ! But that's what I would do, most accurate info I would think.

 

[bumbershoot]

http://www.sheriff.org/safety/carseat.cfm

Florida law requires children under 5 years of age to be properly restrained no matter where they are seated in the vehicle. Children through age 3 must be secured in a separate carrier (child safety seat) or in a vehicle manufacturer's integrated child safety seat. For children ages 4 - 5, a separate carrier, an integrated child safety seat, or a safety belt may be used. If a safety belt does not fit the child correctly, a booster set should be used to correctly position the lap and shoulder belts once they outgrow forward facing child safety seats (generally at about 40 pounds and 4 years old). Children from approximately 40-80 pounds and under 4'9" in height should ride in a booster seat.

Infants must ride rear-facing until they are at least one year old and weigh 20 pounds or more. Rear-facing, the infant should be semi-upright at an angle or no more than 45 degrees. A forward-facing older child should ride sitting upright.

It's far more relaxed than CA. It makes me a bit ill, actually.


The question is, do you want to lower the standards of safety for your kids (vs when they are at home in CA) in a strange place FILLED with tourists driving around like mad, not knowing where they are, on a very busy interstate (4), with you in an unfamiliar car while you also don't know 100% where you're going?

My choice for us is to not lower the safety standards from WA's laws when in FL. He'll be 9 by the time we get to Florida again and the kid is nearly up to my chin (I'm 5'3"), but we even brought the bubblebum booster seat on our last trip, just in case we got a car where the seatbelt didn't fit him perfectly.

 

[kaytieeldr]

So according to bumbershoot's information, they don't need to use booster seats. They certainly can; you're just not breaking the law if they don't.

Just for clarification, when used to denote measurement the single quote/apostophe ( ' ) means feet; a standard quotation mark ( " ) means inches. I'm guessing your kids aren't each more than four stories tall?

 

[grumpyskirtgirl]

Just for clarification, when used to denote measurement the single quote/apostophe ( ' ) means feet; a standard quotation mark ( " ) means inches. I'm guessing your kids aren't each more than four stories tall?

I noticed that afterwards. Quick typing on the phone. Gets me every time.


Thanks all

 

[kaytieeldr]

Hey, I'm not perfect - I'm typing in the iPod and just realized in your quote that while I know there's an 'r' in apostrophe, apparently my fingers didn't when I was typing that...