A lot of kids and teens in California will no longer be able to ride in the front seat of a car. The new rule was made because studies show that kids in the front seat, no matter what age, are more likely to get seriously hurt in accidents if they are small. Based on the numbers, it’s clear that kids younger than 13 should sit in the back seat of the car. It’s important to know who can’t sit in the front seat in this state.
It looks like the law has changed
Children in California must use booster seats until they are 8 years old or 4 feet 9 inches tall, whichever comes first. The California Highway Patrol says that all kids younger than 13 should sit in the back seat, even though that’s against the law in California right now.
Under the new bill, all kids under 10 must use booster seats and no one under 13 can sit in the front seat. This is called the stricter rule. The new bill that is still being considered would require kids up to 13 years old to use a booster seat unless they are the right size.
How did Wilson’s Bill come about?
It was last week that the Assembly of Transportation Committee decided to make things even stricter. Lori Wilson is a Democrat who works for Suisun City. Some groups that work to protect children and cars have backed Lori Wilson’s Bill 435 in the California Assembly. Wilson said that crashes were killing or hurting an alarmingly large number of children. There are concerns about the safety of children in cars because safety belts and airbags don’t fit the small bodies of children.
Before a child can ride in the front seat of a car, Wilson’s Bill says they must pass a 5-step test. This test will begin in 2027. Wilson’s Bill says that you should think about these 5 things when picking where to seat a child or teen:
People who don’t follow the new law will be fined
Wilson said that the government only wants kids to be safe. People who care about safety want to make more difficult rules, like not letting teens under 16 sit in the front seat of the car.
While it’s still unclear whether stricter rules will be put in place, people who break the rules set out in the recently passed bill will have to pay fines. The fines that would be given for not following the bill would lead to:
- The first offence gets you a $20 ticket.
- For every offence after the first one, you will get a $50 ticket.
Another law that other states, like Minnesota and Louisiana, have copied is the new one that California has put in place. Even though it’s different from the current rule, the people who support the bill think it’s important to make sure that all California kids and teens are safe. This law, on the other hand, comes pretty quickly after Californians just agreed to new rules about how to drive in 2025.