{"id":23566,"date":"2018-03-08T17:06:33","date_gmt":"2018-03-08T23:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=23566"},"modified":"2018-03-08T17:06:33","modified_gmt":"2018-03-08T23:06:33","slug":"greater-child-seat-requirements-advanced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=23566","title":{"rendered":"Greater child seat requirements advanced"},"content":{"rendered":"

Child safety seats would get more use under a bill advanced by lawmakers March 8.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Robert Hilkemann<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Under current law, any child up to age 6 must be secured in an approved child safety restraint device that is correctly installed in the vehicle. LB42, introduced by Omaha Sen. Robert Hilkemann, would raise this age to 8.<\/p>\n

The device would have to be located in a vehicle\u2019s rear seat, if available. Additionally, the bill would require that all children up to age 2 use a rear-facing device until the child outgrows the device manufacturer\u2019s height or weight requirements.<\/p>\n

Hilkemann said while some parents may do their own research into height and weight requirements for child safety seats, many do not. It is up to the Legislature to set appropriate standards, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure there are some that do but some simply put their trust in the laws of the state of Nebraska,\u201d Hilkemann said. \u201cThey accept and comply based on what this body determines is safe and with today\u2019s laws, we are doing them a disservice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Omaha Sen. Theresa Thibodeau supported the bill, saying that a rear-facing seat lessens the physical impact of a car accident.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren\u2019s bones don\u2019t fully develop and they\u2019re not strong enough to hold the impact of an airbag until they\u2019ve gone through puberty,\u201d Thibodeau said. \u201cThis protects the children of our state\u2014our state\u2019s most vulnerable people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also supporting the bill was Sen. Lydia Brasch of Bancroft. She said the Legislature must ensure the safety of children, especially in dangerous situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do need to protect them and remind citizens of how vulnerable they are to injury,\u201d Brasch said. \u201cIt would ensure that they abide by laws that protect them for life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill would impose additional unnecessary government regulations, said Bayard Sen. Steve Erdman in opposition to the bill. He said laws already do a good job in keeping kids safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have an opportunity to restrain our kids according to the law we currently have,\u201d Erdman said. \u201cParents need to be able to make decisions for their own children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the adoption of a technical Transportation and Telecommunications Committee amendment, senators advanced the bill to select file on a 36-3 vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Child safety seats would get more use under a bill advanced by lawmakers March 8.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23551,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22],"tags":[152],"class_list":["post-23566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transportation-and-telecommunications","tag-sen-robert-hilkemann"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/LB42Hilkemann3-8-18a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23567,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23566\/revisions\/23567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}