MISSOURI, ILLINOIS GET FAILING GRADES ON KIDS' CAR SAFETY

Missouri gets an "F" for its laws stating when children are required to wear safety devices in vehicles, a national child advocacy group said.

Missouri was among 24 states, including Illinois, that failed a study conducted by the National Safe Kids Campaign.

The group's survey examined child-safety-restraint laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and found that many states allow children to ride completely unrestrained in the back seat, while others like Missouri allow children to ride in nothing more than a seat belt designed for an adult.

Heidi Crowden of Jackson, Mo., said Missouri has earned its failing grade.

"I have not checked a car seat yet that was properly installed," said Crowden, coordinator for Safe Kids in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois.

Missouri's laws require children 3 and younger to be secured in a car seat, while those between 4 and 16 simply must wear a seat belt.

If police catch a child out of a car seat, the fine in Cape Girardeau is $25. The fine for older children not wearing seat belts is $10.

"It's not high enough," Crowden said. "Parents think after a certain age they don't need car seats. But that's wrong."

Enforcement tough

Enforcing child-restraint laws isn't always easy, said Cape Girardeau police Lt. Carl Kinnison. When a child is seen moving around inside a vehicle, the violation is obvious but not when a child is seated, he said.

"Unless the officer is sitting next to a car at a traffic light, it's almost impossible to see," Kinnison said.

Crowden has traveled around the region speaking to parents and teachers for 10 years about child safety seats and how to install them properly. As a pediatric nurse, she said she regularly sees the damage done to children improperly restrained in vehicles.

A car seat should ideally be so snug that its base moves less than an inch after installation, she said. Otherwise, a child's weight can shift dangerously in an accident causing greater physical damage.

When children outgrow car seats, booster seats designed for vehicles should be used as a transition before seat belts, Crowden said.

The problem with putting a child in a seat belt is size, she said. A seat belt should fit securely so that a person's lower hips hit the belt in an accident. A child in a lap belt typically makes contact with the belt in the abdomen, sometimes resulting in internal injuries.

"It's the same reason why you don't put a child in a seat in front of an air bag," Crowden said.

Safe Kids gives a standard of weighing 80 pounds or measuring 4 feet 9 inches for a child to be big enough to use a seat belt safely.

Dwaine Lape of Dexter, Mo., recently traveled to a Safe Kids rally in Washington, D.C., to share the experience of his grandchildren. Although his son-in-law and daughter were following Missouri law when they put seat belts on 6-year-old Brendon and 4-year-old Zoe, it wasn't enough.

Only two and one-half weeks ago, he said he was standing over two hospital beds watching his grandson and granddaughter struggle to breathe on respirators.

"To see something like that, it hurts your heart," Lape said. "No one can say for sure that if they were in booster seats it could have been different, but if we have an opportunity of maybe not causing such great internal injuries, then we ought to do it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.