March 25, 2025
Car seats and booster seats are life-saving devices. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that correctly used child restraints reduce traffic crash fatalities by 71 percent for infants younger than 1 year old and by 54 percent for children 1 to 4 years old in passenger cars.
Unfortunately, vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of death for young children.
Michigan’s updated Child Passenger Safety Laws, which take effect April 2, 2025, provide improved precautions to help protect child passengers.
Under the updated laws, children must be secured in a car seat that is appropriate for their age, weight and height as indicated by the car seat’s manufacturer. These updates state:
• Infant to two years: A child must be in a rear-facing car seat until they reach the maximum weight or height allowed by the car seat’s manufacturer or the child is 2 years old.
• Two to five years: The child can then move into a forward-facing car seat until they reach the maximum weight or height allowed by the car seat’s manufacturer or the child is 5 years old.
• Five to eight years: The child can then move to a belt-positioning booster seat using a lap-and-shoulder belt until they are 4 feet 9 inches or 8 years old.
• All children under 13 years: Must ride in the rear seat of a vehicle if the vehicle has one available.
Michigan’s Child Passenger Safety Laws also require:
• Children younger than age 4 to ride in a car seat in the rear seat (if the vehicle has a rear seat). If all available rear seats are occupied by children under 4, then a child under 4 may ride in a car seat in the front seat. A child in a rear-facing car seat may only ride in the front seat if the airbag is turned off.
• Children must be properly buckled in a car seat or booster seat until they are 8 years old or 4 feet 9 inches tall. Children must ride in a seat until they reach the age requirement or the height requirement, whichever comes first.
“These new standards, along with following manufacturers’ guidelines, will ensure children are safely secured in their car seats and better protected if a crash occurs,” said Katie Bower, director of the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP). “We encourage parents to recheck all their car seats and booster seats to make sure they meet the necessary requirements and are fitted properly for each child’s height and weight.”
For information on child passenger safety recommendations, including car seat check locations, visit OHSP’s Child Passenger Safety web page at Michigan.gov/carseats.
