When were car seat laws made?

Question

my parents always say they never had us in carseats but I was born in 82 and am sure they had the laws then... When was it mandatory to have car seats?

Answer 1

Car  seat laws are fairly recent and most states waited until the federal law required them. This was about 10-12 years ago, seat belt laws were not mandatory until the early 1970's although they were an aftermarket option in the 50's.

Answer 2

Depending upon your parents and grandparents ages, it is a rather recent thing - the child car seat has been developed over the last 50 years or so. And the very first car 'seat' was actually a drawstring bag that attached to the vehicle, just to keep the child from moving around. And when the next actual seat was designed in the 1930's, again, its sole purpose was to keep baby from moving around, it didn't offer any protection. In the 30's seatbelts started becoming more commonplace, but children were still not forefront on the safety agenda in the car.

It wasn't until the 1960's, in Sweden no less, that the rear facing infant car seat was designed. And when they hit the market in mid 60's, few people bought them b/c they thought it was a useless waste of money, b/c they weren't educated about their importance.

So in the 70's there was a major push to educate everyone about the car seat's importance. Tennessee was the first state to pass a car seat law, and between 1978-1985, all states passed car seat laws. So - that's only 23 years ago that laws went into affect! That didn't mean no one used them before that, I'm 26 and my mom always had me in one, but she's super safety-conscious, and many people figured, then and now, that what was good way back when is still good enough now. By 1984, 50% of kids 0-4 were in car seats.

Answer 3

Try this site............................

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_safet...

Answer 4

a lot of kids got killed in cars. Ralph Nader was the guy who got the car companies to put in seat belts,car seats,safer cars,more safety recalls,and that is why they bad mouth him today.

Would make a better president than the flunkies  running for office presently.

Answer 5

They have only been mandatory in the UK since September 2006.  I was surprised when my 5 yr old was born that it wasn't mandatory.

It has been mandatory for children to wear rear seat belts since 1989.