Senate Bill No. 414
(By Senators Tomblin, Mr. President, and Sprouse,
By Request of the Executive)
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[Introduced March 1, 2005; referred to the Committee
on Transportation and Infrastructure; and then to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §17C-15-46 of the Code of West
Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to child passenger safety
and booster seats.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §17C-15-46 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 15. EQUIPMENT.
§17C-15-46. Child passenger safety devices required; child safety
seats and booster seats.
Every driver who transports a child under the age of nine
years in a passenger automobile, van or pickup truck other than one
operated for hire shall, while such motor vehicle is in motion and
operated on a street or highway of this state, provide for the
protection of such child by properly placing, maintaining and securing such child in a child passenger safety device system,
child safety seat or booster seat, meeting applicable federal motor
vehicle safety standards:
Provided, That if a child is at least
four six years of age
or and at least
forty sixty pounds in weight,
an appropriate child passenger restraint or a safety belt shall be
sufficient to meet the requirements of this section.
Any person who violates any provision of this section is
guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be
fined not less than ten dollars nor more than twenty dollars.
A violation of this section shall not be deemed by virtue of
such violation to constitute evidence of negligence or contributory
negligence or comparative negligence in any civil action or
proceeding for damages.
If any provision of this section or the application thereof to
any person or circumstance is held invalid, such invalidity shall
not affect other provisions or applications of this section, and to
this end the subsections of this section are declared to be severable.
If all seat belts in a vehicle are being used at the time of
examination by a law officer and the vehicle contains more
passengers than the total number of seat belts or other safety
devices as installed in compliance with federal motor vehicle
safety standards, the driver shall not be considered as violating
this section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require the use of an
appropriate child passenger restraint device or booster seat until
the child is at least six years of age and weighs at least sixty
pounds.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.