PARENTS may have to rush to the store and buy some new equipment before a new October 1 law goes into effect.
The new road law establishes updated weight rules for certain seats, and anyone caught with the wrong setup will get an instant $100 fine.
Drivers are facing $100 tickets under a new road law that’s coming into effect on October 1[/caption]
The new legislation has updated the regulations for how children are secured in vehicles and with what equipment.
The new rules have been the federal standard for quite some time, but specific states are just now getting around to enforcing the update.
Montana has joined other states with House Bill 586, which is set to go into effect starting in October.
The goal of the law is to help parents “choose the safest seating for their child,” Heidi Moran, an injury prevention coordinator with Richland County Health Department, told FOX affiliate KTMF.
Moran added that, in their opinion, the previous law, which was established in 1987, was “very broad.”
The original bill only required that a child under the age of six who weighs less than 60 pounds “must be transported and properly restrained in a child safety restraint,” per the state’s official legislative archive.
Now, the guidelines are much more descriptive, providing specific instructions and requirements for children under two, from two to four, from four to eight, and over nine years of age.
As of this writing, no specific weight guidelines or ranges are present in the new additions per the latest bill text.
Instead, a child under the age of two must always be restrained in a rear-facing car seat with an internal harness.
Meanwhile, a child aged two to four must be restrained in a rear-facing or front-facing car seat.
A child between the ages of four and eight years must be in a forward-facing car seat or a child booster seat secured with a vehicle lap-shoulder seat belt.
Children cannot use only an adult seat belt until they are at least nine or have outgrown car seat height or weight requirements.
New Child Car Seat Guidelines in Montana
DRIVERS in Montana will need to abide by new car seat guidelines starting October 1.
Here is the full list of rules that parents need to follow.
- Children under the age of two need to be restrained in a rear-facing car seat which also has an internal harness
- Children between two and four years old need to be restrained in a rear-facing or forward-facing car seat
- Children between four to eight years old must be in a forward-facing car seat or a child booster seat secured with the vehicle’s lap-shoulder seatbelt
- Children who are either nine years or older or who’ve outgrown the height or weight limits of a child booster seat, whichever comes first, must be secured with an adult seat belt
SEAT LAWS SWEEP THE NATION
Montana is just the latest state to enforce new car safety measures for children.
Michigan passed its own seat law this April, similarly mandating different procedures for children of different ages and heights riding in vehicles.
Those found not complying with the new law could be slapped with a $65 fine.
April also saw New York enact a statewide seat law which focused on ensuring children between the ages of eight and 16 were buckled up.
Those who weren’t would get hit with a $50 fine, with parents also liable to be punished in certain situations.
In cases where a parent wasn’t inside the car, the driver would instead be held responsible.
2026 will see another major overhaul in the world of child car seats, all of which must meet strict new federal safety standards which hope to boost protection of children in side-impact collisions.
The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration delayed the law’s launch from its original June 30 date to December 5, 2026 in order to give new parents and car seat manufacturers time to prepare.
