Parents of very young children in Illinois will have to make some changes in their children's safety seats. A change took effect this week in the Child Passenger Protection Act requiring infants to ride in rear-facing safety seats.
Trooper Jason Wilson from the State Police post in East Moline says until now the law has set only general rules - that kids through age 15 must be in seats appropriate for their age, weight, and height. But from now on, infants up to age two, or less than 40 pounds, must ride in rear-facing seats.
"If a child is in a forward-facing position and they are below the weight of 40 pounds, then there's a really good chance that their neck is not going to be able to support their head as well. So if they get involved in a forward-facing crash, which would be the normal crash and the most severe crash, it actually has caused severe injury or death in infants and small children."
Wilson says the purpose of the change is not for officers to write more tickets, but to make car travel safer for very young children.
