- Indiana Seat Belt Laws for Childrenchild in the car image by Natalia Pavlova from Fotolia.com
Indiana law requires drivers to be responsible for buckling up all child passengers in seat belts and booster-seat restraints when they are riding in pickup trucks. If you are a pickup owner, you'll need to understand Indiana law on child seat belts, what happens if you are caught violating the law, and exceptions to the law. - The Indiana Child Restraint Law, enacted in 2005, requires children to be restrained when riding in a pickup truck. Restraints include a shoulder belt inside the truck and a belted booster seat. This law requires children 8 years old until their 16th birthday to ride with a seat belt. Children under age 8 must ride in a federally approved car seat or booster seat. The car seat must be appropriate to the child's height and weight. Infants must ride rear-facing in a pickup truck until they are at least 1 year old and weigh 20 pounds. The infant should be upright at a 45-degree angle. Indiana also requires that the car seat be installed and used in a pickup according to manufacturer instructions.
- If you are caught with a child not properly restrained in your pickup truck by either a shoulder seat belt or booster seat, you will be ordered to pay a $25 fine for the first offense. First-time offenders who bring a child safety seat or booster to court and put on the court record that they are making all arrangements to incorporate a safety restraint in their pickup may see the fine waived by the court. Fines collected from violations go into a fund to provide child seat restraints and booster seats for low-income families throughout Indiana.
- Indiana does recognize certain exceptions to the child seat belt and restraint law. For example, if all shoulder seat belts are being used by another child in a pickup, then a child over 40 pounds may ride in a lap-only seat belt and without a child restraint. This does not include children under age 8 who require booster seats, as booster seats cannot not be safely installed or restrained in a lap-only seat belt. An additional exemption includes medical conditions or physical disfiguration that may cause further harm to a child if confined by a seat belt. Such medical exceptions need to be documented by the child's physician and carried inside the truck at all times. Upon a traffic stop, the adult driver must be able to prove a medical condition exemption.
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