South Carolina's Child Passenger Restraint Law



South Carolina’s child passenger restraint law requires that:

• Children from birth to 1 year old, or who weigh less than 20 pounds, must be secured in a rear-facing child safety seat.
• Children 1 through 5 years old weighing at least 20 pounds and less than 40 pounds must be restrained in a forward-facing child seat.
• Children 1 through 5 years old weighing 40 to 80 pounds must be secured in a belt-positioning booster seat.
• Children under the age of 6 are not required to be in booster seats if they weigh more than 80 pounds or if they can sit with their backs against the car's seat and bend their legs over the seat edge without slouching.
• Children under 6 may not sit in the front passenger seat. However, this restriction does not apply if the vehicle has no rear passenger seats or if all other rear passenger seats are occupied by children less than 6 years old.

This law does not apply to taxis, church, school and day care buses, or commercial vehicles.


Car Seat Safety Tips from SafeKids:

Seventy-three percent of car seats are not used or installed correctly, so before you hit the road, check your car seat. Certified child passenger safety technicians are able to help or even double check your work.

 

Buy a used car seat only if you know its full crash history. That means you must buy it from someone you know, not from a thrift store or over the Internet. Once a car seat has been in a crash or is expired or broken, it needs to be replaced.

 

We know that when adults wear seat belts, kids wear seat belts. So be a good example and buckle up for every ride. Be sure everyone in the vehicle buckles up, too.

 

Never leave your child alone in a car, not even for a minute. While it may be tempting to dash out for a quick errand, the temperature inside your car can rise 20 degrees and cause heatstroke in the time it takes for you to run in and out of the store.