BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 881|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 881
Author: Mullin (D)
Amended: 7/5/07 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE : 7-4, 6/12/07
AYES: Lowenthal, Cedillo, Corbett, Kehoe, Simitian,
Torlakson, Yee
NOES: McClintock, Ashburn, Dutton, Harman
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 44-25, 5/7/07 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Child safety seats
SOURCE : California Coalition for Childrens Safety and
Health
Safe Kids California
Safety Center Incorporated
Safety BeltSafe U.S.A.
DIGEST : This bill requires, beginning on June 30, 2008,
children up to eight years of age to ride in a child safety
seat.
ANALYSIS : Existing law prohibits a parent or guardian
from allowing a child who is six years of age or younger or
who weighs less than 60 pounds from being transported in a
motor vehicle unless that child is in a federally-approved
CONTINUED
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child safety seat in the rear seat of the vehicle. When a
parent or guardian is not present, then existing law
prohibits a driver from transporting a child who is younger
than six years of age or weighs less than 60 pounds in a
motor vehicle unless the child is in child seat in the rear
seat of the vehicle.
A child under six years of age or 60 pounds may be
transported in the front seat of vehicle if there is no
rear seat, the rear seats are side-facing jump seats, the
rear seats are rear-facing seats, the child seat cannot be
installed properly in the rear seat, all the rear seats are
occupied by other children, or medical reasons necessitate
that the child cannot ride in the rear seat.
In no case may a child who is under one year of age, 20
pounds, or riding in a rear-facing child seat be seated in
a front seat with an active passenger air bag.
A parent or guardian may not allow a child from six years
to 15 years of age to transported in a motor vehicle unless
that child is in an appropriate child safety seat or seat
belt meeting federal safety standards. When a parent or
guardian is not present, then existing law prohibits a
driver from transporting a child from six years to 15 years
of age in a motor vehicle unless that child is in an
appropriate child safety seat or seat belt meeting federal
safety standards.
Existing law requires hospitals, clinics, or birthing
centers, when discharging a child under age six or 60
pounds, to provide and discuss information on the current
law requiring child safety seats to whomever the child is
released. It requires rental car agencies to post a
notice stating that children under age six who weigh less
than 60 pounds must ride in the rear seat in a child safety
seat. Rental car agencies must also make child safety
seats available for rent.
This bill:
1. Requires children under the age of eight years old to be
transported in a rear seat in a car seat that meets
federal motor safety requirements, unless that child is
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four feet nine inches in height or taller, in which case
the child may be restrained by a seat belt rather than a
child seat. This bill maintains the exceptions in
existing law to the requirement that child safety seats
be in the rear seat of the vehicle.
2. Requires hospitals, clinics, or birthing centers, when
discharging a child under age eight, to provide and
discuss information on the current law requiring child
safety seats, seat belts, and transporting children in
rear seats to whomever the child is released.
3. Revises the disclosure that rental car agencies must
post regarding car seats to:
A. Conform to the new child seat requirements in this
bill.
B. Add the requirement that children must be in a
rear facing child passenger restraint system in the
backseat until they are both one year old and weigh
20 pounds.
C. Declare that everyone eight years and over must
wear a seat belt.
D. State that the rental car agency must provide
child seats for rent.
4. Requires rental car companies to provide car seats, upon
request, for children less than eight years of age
rather than age six as under existing law.
5. Declares that the state is eligible for federal funding
for public education and low-cost or no-cost booster
seats under the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient
Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users. To be
eligible, states must require car seats for children up
to age eight.
6. Makes other conforming changes to the laws governing
taxicabs and limousines.
7. Becomes operative on June 30, 2008.
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Prior Legislation . Last year, the Governor vetoed AB 2108
(Evans), a bill similar to this one, which required
children up to eight years of age to ride in a child safety
seat. In his veto message, the Governor wrote:
"I am returning Assembly Bill 2108 without my signature.
"As the father of four, I am very supportive of laws
designed to protect children. Unfortunately, simply
increasing the maximum age requirement for children to be
restrained by vehicle booster seats, as proposed by AB
2108, will do little to actually better protect our
children.
"Parental responsibility is the key to protecting our
children. Studies from the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA) show overwhelmingly that
driver restraint use is the strongest predictor of child
restraint use. It is most often the case that those that
use seatbelts themselves also properly restrain their
young passengers. Conversely, those who disregard
seatbelt laws also fail to properly secure their
children. If all adults responsible for young children
were to comply with current laws related to child
restraint systems, many tragic injuries and deaths could
be avoided. As such, the way to better protect our
children is through education of and compliance with
existing laws, not the addition of new ones."
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 7/3/07)
California Coalition for Children's Safety and Health
(co-source)
Safe Kids California (co-source)
Safety Center Incorporated (co-source)
Safety BeltSafe U.S.A. (co-source)
Association of California Insurance Companies
Automobile Association of Southern California
Baby Focus, Inc.
California Child Development Administrators Association
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California Medical Association
California State Automobile Association
California State PTA
Center for the Independence of the Disabled, Inc.
Child Abuse Prevention Council of Contra Costa County
Children's Specialty Care Coalition
Consumnes Community Services District Fire Department
Cottage Health System
National Transportation Safety Board
Nevada County Safe Kids
Oakland Police Department
Personal Insurance Federation of California
Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District
Safe Kids Greater Sacramento
Safe Kids of Santa Cruz County
Safe Kids Sonoma County
Safe Kids Worldwide
Santa Cruz Child Care Planning Council
State Farm
Trauma Managers Association of California
OPPOSITION : (Verified 7/5/07)
Department of Motor Vehicles
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The Automobile Club of Southern
California and the California State Automobile Association
state:
"AB 881 strengthens existing Child Passenger Safety (CPS)
laws and ultimately will save lives by requiring booster
seat protection for children until they are at least 8
years old or 4 feet 9 inches tall. California statistics
show that children age six and seven continue to be
killed and injured at higher rates than other children.
This age group, often labeled as the 'forgotten child,'
is too big for child safety seats yet too small to fully
benefit from safety belts, which are designed for adults.
AB 881 also requires children under 8 years old to be
seated in the back seat addressing the fact that the
front passenger seat is the most dangerous seating
position in the car for children and adults because
inflating airbags can cause injuries to front seat
passengers. These new requirements mirror the
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recommendations of the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
"The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has conducted
extensive research for their Partners for Child Passenger
Safety study. Their study concluded that using a booster
seat rather than seat belt alone, reduces a child's risk
of injury by 59%. Equally significant was their finding
that parents can reduce the risk of injury to their child
in a crash by 43% by properly seating their child in the
back seat. Booster seats and seating position represent
the most reliable and cost effective solutions to
reducing child passenger injuries and fatalities."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The Department of Motor
Vehicles states:
"While we fully support the concept of protecting
vulnerable young passengers, we note that this is the
fifth proposed change to the passenger restraint laws in
the past seven years. Last year the Governor vetoed AB
2108, (Evans), which was similar to your bill, because of
the need to emphasize educational and enforcement options
to improve child passenger restraint system usage.
"We are concerned that individuals who transport children
are becoming confused by the frequent changes in the law
and that enforcement officers are finding it increasingly
difficult to ascertain when a driver is in violation of
child passenger laws. Therefore, we believe that
resources would be better spent, and our children better
served, if we focus our efforts on improving parental
education and stepping up enforcement to catch
scofflaws."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Arambula, Bass, Beall, Berg, Blakeslee, Brownley,
Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter, Coto, Davis, De La
Torre, De Leon, DeSaulnier, Dymally, Eng, Feuer,
Galgiani, Hancock, Hayashi, Hernandez, Houston, Huffman,
Jones, Karnette, Krekorian, Laird, Leno, Levine, Lieber,
Ma, Mullin, Parra, Portantino, Price, Richardson, Ruskin,
Salas, Saldana, Solorio, Swanson, Torrico, Wolk, Nunez
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NOES: Adams, Aghazarian, Anderson, Berryhill, Cook,
DeVore, Emmerson, Fuller, Gaines, Horton, Huff, Jeffries,
Keene, La Malfa, Maze, Niello, Plescia, Sharon Runner,
Silva, Smyth, Spitzer, Strickland, Tran, Villines,
Walters
NO VOTE RECORDED: Benoit, Duvall, Evans, Garcia, Garrick,
Lieu, Mendoza, Nakanishi, Nava, Soto, Vacancy
JJA:mw 7/5/07 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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