With time running out, advocates push bill to require rear-facing car seats in Mass.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of Christina Hayman, senior manager of government affairs with the American Automobile Association.
BOSTON ― There was urgency at a legislative briefing held at the State House Wednesday by proponents of a bill that would require children to be strapped into rear-facing car seats until they reach age 2.
The latest legislative session is racing to a close and the legislation has been pending for a dozen years.
“Keeping children in rear-facing seats is so important, it’s a lifesaving measure,” said Christina Hayman, senior manager of government affairs with the American Automobile Association, one of the sponsors of the briefing.
While Massachusetts law already requires that infants up to age 1 be strapped into rear-facing car seats — and children up to 8 years old or 57 inches tall remain in appropriate car seats — proponents argue the measure, passed in 2008, leaves a gap that opens the door for horrific injuries to children involved in crashes.
The companion bills filed in the House and Senate by sponsors Rep. Mindy Domb, D-Amherst, and Sen. Barry Finegold, D-Andover, would require all children through age 2 or weighing less than 30 pounds be strapped into rear-facing car seats until they outgrow those seats.
Maria McMahon, trauma program manager and a pediatric nurse practitioner at Boston Children’s Hospital, remembered a case of an 18-month-old admitted following a car crash. The child had been strapped into a forward-facing seat and the force of the collision impelled her forward, injuring her spine and upper extremities.
“She was strapped in with a five-point harness, but in a forward facing seat,” McMahon said. The neck and spine injuries resulted in partial paralysis. In a rear-facing seat, the child would have been cocooned, like a turtle in a shell — her head, neck and spine protected by the car’s seat and the hard plastic shell of the device.
The current law is “not strong enough,” said Barbara DiGirolamo, also of Boston Children’s Hospital.
If Massachusetts legislators pass the measure and it lands on Gov. Maura T. Healey’s desk, the state would join 18 others, plus Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico, in requiring the rear-facing restraints.
Domb said the cost of the measure for families in Massachusetts would be negligible.
“This will not be a cost burden on our low-income residents,” she said, listing programs that give away rear-facing seats for free.
“Lack of money should not be the reason why children are not secured,” Domb said.
Existing law credited for reducing deaths
Since Massachusetts passed its current child-safety seat mandate 16 years ago, child fatality rates for infants up to 1 decreased by 71%, and the fatality rate for children 1 to 4 decreased by 54%, according to statistics cited by Dr. Wee Chua, a pediatric emergency room physician at Massachusetts General Hospital.
In his position at Mass. General, Chua sees many children come in who were involved in a crash. He said those who were appropriately restrained are usually “OK.” Recovery outcomes for children riding in cars without appropriate restraints are often not as promising, he said.
“There’s not much I can do as a new dad to keep my baby safe. I can vaccinate them according to schedule, put them to sleep on their backs and strap them into a rear-facing car seat,” said Chua.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Rear-facing car seat bill supporters press for action in Massachusetts
