carpooling and booster seats: the inconvenient truth

I’ve written about the importance of having a safe car pool previously – but a study was recently published by the American Academy of Pediatrics underscores how inconsistent booster seat usage is when car pooling.

In Ohio, boosters for kids younger than 8 and under 4’9″ tall is required. In addition, the driver is responsible for all passengers in the car.

Does the inconvenience of a booster seat outweigh the risks (either a ticket or much worse – an accident)?

The study outlined that although booster seat laws, which vary from state to state, have resulted in more children using booster seats in their family car and a decreased number of injuries overall – there is still a lot of work to do when in comes to car pooling. Many parents cited not having enough seat belts in the car, not having the right type of booster seat and the difficulty of enforcing booster seat usage among their child’s peers as possible barriers to usage.

With car pooling what changes? I’m interested to know your thoughts!