Car safety is incredibly important due to the high death rate associated with automobile accidents. Ensuring the safety of your passengers becomes even more important when one or more of your passengers is a child and his safety is dependent on you choosing a proper seat and restraint system. The safest place in a car is in the back seat, but Illinois laws allow children to ride in the front seat after they meet certain criteria.
According to the laws of Illinois, a child is allowed to be transported in the front seat of a car after they are 8 years old or older. While an 8-year-old is legally allowed to ride in the front seat of a car, most safety guidelines recommend that children should not ride in the front seat until they are 12 or older. Any person under 16 is required to wear a seat belt no matter where they are located in the car.
A child that is 7 years old or under is required by the state of Illinois to be seated in a child safety seat. Children between the ages of 4 and 7 years old should be placed in a booster seat. Children under the age of 4 should be placed in a car seat. To determine if your child should sit in a car seat or booster seat, check the manufacturer's recommendations for the seat in which you intend on putting your child. Some car seats work for a child of a higher weight, while others do not; a booster seat would be safer.
While Illinois state law dictates that people over the age of 16 are not required to wear a seat belt, the law changes if a teen is driving the vehicle. If the operator of the vehicle is under 18 years old, all passengers under 18 are required to wear seat belts no matter where they are seated in the car. Even though the law does not dictate that people over the age of 18 need to wear seat belts, for safety purposes, everyone riding in a car should use a seat belt at all times.
Most cars are equipped with shoulder and lap belt combinations--which are considered the safest option. Sometimes only a seat with a lap belt is available. If a child is 8 years or older and weighs more than 40 pounds, she is allowed to be placed in a seat that has only a lap belt if no other options are available. The best choice is always a shoulder belt, but the law allows for lap belt use if no other options for the child exist.
