02/21/2007

Associated Press

Safety advocates flooded House Judiciary Committee members with images of children's bruised torsos, broken necks and death as they promoted a bill to tighten rules on where and how children can ride in cars.

Among other things, the bill would require children under 13 to sit in back seats of cars that have them.

Infants in their first 12 months and any child weighing less than 20 pounds would require a rear-facing car seat. Anyone weighing less than 40 pounds and standing under 4-foot-9 would have to use a booster seat or other child safety system.

Advocates at Tuesday's hearing included a doctor, a trauma nurse coordinator, a traffic officer and a lawyer who has represented families whose children have been injured in vehicle crashes.

Armed with grisly accounts of injuries and published research, the speakers said the bill could curb injury and death to children.

In 2005, a nationwide average of five children age 14 and younger were killed and about 640 were injured per day in auto crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Dr. Jim Lace, a Portland pediatrician, cited an insurance study showing children are 37 percent less likely to be fatally injured riding in the rear seat than in the front.

Ruth Harshfield, executive director of the Beaverton-based Alliance for Community Traffic Safety in Oregon, said children should not sit in front because it places them closer to the point of impact in head-on crashes and lacks the protection of a row of seats in front of them.

Oregon's current law requires children to sit in a booster seat until they are age 6 or weigh 60 pounds. But advocates for stricter standards said research shows that leaves too many children vulnerable.

No committee member voiced opposition to the bill.

But some, such as Rep. Jeff Barker, D-Aloha, said they'd like to see it reworked.

He said his 89-year-old mother often rode in the back because she was smaller and more fragile than many 12-year-old children.

He questioned whether he would have to put someone like that in the front so more physically fit youngsters could sit in the back.

Rep. Wayne Krieger, R-Gold Beach, recalled that when his son was 12, he stood 5-foot-9 and weighed more than 200 pounds, making him a better candidate for the front seat than his sister was when she was 14 and weighed scarcely 100 pounds.

"I think the bill has a lot of merit, but we might have to have some conversations about how we could modify this in some way," Krieger said.

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Information from: The Register-Guard, http://www.registerguard.com