CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Capt. Chuck Hirata of the Maui County Police Department holds the type of booster seat that kids younger than 8 will be required to use next year when riding in automobiles.

Kids under 8 will need car-seat boosts

As of Jan. 1, parents will have to top off child safety seats

A booster seat may end up being a good Christmas gift for some parents, especially since the law will require children under 8 years* of age to sit in one starting next month.

The state Department of Health and the Honolulu Police Department reminded the public last week that beginning Jan. 1, children under 8 must be using a booster seat whenever traveling in a motor vehicle.

Currently only children under the age of 4 are required to be in a booster atop a child safety seat. But in the new year, drivers violating the law will be fined between $100 and $500 and made to attend a four-hour safety class. Hawaii will be the 38th state in the nation to implement a booster-seat law.

Of about 600 children between ages 4 and 8 involved in collisions each year in Hawaii, 126 of them have to be rushed to the emergency room, and nine are hospitalized for an extended period of time, said state Health Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino.

"We have been very fortunate that we have not experienced a death in that age group in recent years," Fukino said. "The seat is something most children can tolerate."

Lunalilo Elementary School student Noa can attest to that. He's been in a safety seat since he's been riding in cars, said the 5-year-old's mother, Maile Burke.

Despite the law taking effect next month, Burke said she just followed the seat's instructions, which recommend parents to keep their child in a booster seat until the child's ears go above the top of the seat.

"They come in a wide variety of prices, too," said Burke, a primary care planner for the state Department of Health. "The prices are nothing compared to death, or dismemberment."

An exception to the law allows the following passengers to not be in a booster seat: Those traveling in a vehicle with only lap belts in the back seat and those taller than 4 feet 9 inches.

Carolyne Fujioka, a board member for the Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition, said her group has been fighting to get the law passed since 1998.

Fujioka, also the public relations director for State Farm Insurance, emphasized that a tax credit of $25 can be obtained when buying a booster seat.

With some seats selling for around $20, Fujioka said, there should be no reason why parents wouldn't spring for a seat.

Capt. Chuck Hirata, a certified child passenger safety seat instructor since 1997, said police will be vigilant in enforcing the law, and that drivers will be held responsible.

"We're doing this not to raise funds, but to save children's lives," Hirata said.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, seat belts will not fully restrain a child in a crash because they are designed for adults with full physical development.

The agency reported that the use of booster seats lowers the risk of injury to children in crashes by 59 percent, yet only 10 to 20 percent of children ages 4 through 8 use them.