New law means more kids in booster seats

A new booster seat law coming into effect on P.E.I. in the new year means thousands more Island children will be required to use them in vehicles.

The new rules apply to children under the age of nine.Children who weigh more than 40 pounds and are shorter than four feet nine inches will have to be in a booster seat.

The province has issued those rules as a recommendation for years, but they become law on Jan. 1, 2008. The legislation was passed in the legislature's fall sitting.

"This is just another issue to help the safety of our Island children," Transportation Minister Ron MacKinley said. MacKinley said enforcement would be soft in the early months to allow people a chance to buy the seats, but he urged people to prepare as soon as possible.

"Now is a good time. If you don't have a booster seat and there's a friend or maybe yourself that could give a family a booster seat if you've got young people,what about a Christmas present?"

The previous Pat Binns government had plans a few years ago to introduce legislation on booster seats, based on rules already in place in Nova Scotia, but that idea was shelved.

Provincial officials note that every year about 10,000 young children across the country are injured in traffic collisions. Recent statistics show only about 28 per cent of Canadian families use booster seats for children between the ages of four and nine.

Transport Canada adds a note of caution for cross border shoppers: Booster seats purchased in the United States are not legal in Canada.