Child Safety Seat

Berlin Police Department Home Page - Site Map

Request a FREE 7.45-minute video covering the following topics:

Need for Child Passenger Safety
Massachusetts CPS Law
CPS resources in Massachusetts
Basic installation tips
Selecting the proper child safety seat
Transition from child safety seat to booster seat to safety belt
Five common misuses of seats

Anyone requiring a safety seat inspection please call Berlin Police Dispatch
at: Non-Emergency (978) 838-7356 for more information.

Officer Dave Goulding
Child Passenger Safety Technician

Keeping Our Children Safe

Quick Links to Information for Parents To Request your FREE 7.45 Child Safety Video Massachusetts residents or organizations may request a free copy of the video by e-mailing a request to the GHSB. Please be sure to include your full mailing address with zip code.		Safety Guidelines for Parents and Caregivers of Young Children The Massachusetts Governor's Highway Safety Board - and the Berlin Police Dept. urge parents and other caregivers to follow these four guidelines to keep children safer: 1. Use rear-facing child safety seats for children from birth to 20-22 pounds AND one year of age. There are "big baby" rear facing seats for children up to 35 pounds. See why this is so important. 2. Use forward-facing child safety seats for children who weigh 20 to 40 pounds. The Massachusetts Child Passenger Safety Law requires children under 5 years old and weighing 40 pounds or less to ride in child safety seats 3. Use booster seats to properly position safety belts on children weighing 40 to 80 pounds. Children under 5 years old but weighing more than 40 ponds must ride in booster seats. 4. When children are ready for safety belts, make sure they wear them on every trip. Children are ready for a safety belt when they are over 80 pounds and 4 feet 9 inches or taller. The Massachusetts Child Passenger Safety Law requires children between the ages of 5 and 12 to be properly restrained with safety belts (for maximum safety, a booster seat may be required as described above). Older children as well as adults need to set a good example for younger children by obeying the Massachusetts Safety Belt Law and always buckling up.

For more information on child passenger safety - including a list of additional child passenger safety technicians across Massachusetts Please Click Here.
	Back-Seat Placement Saves More Than 1,700 Kids Thursday, October 9, 2003 According to the Air Bag & Seat Belt Safety Campaign, more than 1,700 children in motor vehicles have been saved since 1996 solely because they had been placed in the rear seat dramatically reducing the number of child deaths from air bags by 96% and motor vehicle accidents overall with a significant reduction in fatalities among infants and toddlers. Karen Farnsworth, director of child passenger safety at the National SAFE KIDS Campaign speaks to this issue, "Too many children are still riding unrestrained and improperly restrained, We must continue to educate parents that the much safer place for children is in the back seat, properly restrained."

GENERAL LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS

PART I. - TITLE XIV. PUBLIC WAYS AND WORKS -
CHAPTER 90. MOTOR VEHICLES AND AIRCRAFT - MOTOR VEHICLES
Chapter 90: Section 7AA Child passenger restraints; fine; violation as evidence in civil action

Section 7AA. No child under age five and no child weighing forty pounds or less shall ride as a passenger in a motor vehicle on any way unless such child is properly fastened and secured, according to the manufacturer's instructions, by a child passenger restraint as defined in section one.

No child who is five years of age or older, but not older than twelve years of age, shall ride as a passenger in a motor vehicle on any way unless such child is wearing a safety belt which is properly adjusted and fastened according to the manufacturer's instructions.

The provisions of this section shall not apply to any such child who is: (1) riding as a passenger in a school bus; (2) riding as a passenger in a motor vehicle made before July first, nineteen hundred and sixty-six, that is not equipped with safety belts; (3) physically unable to use either a conventional child passenger restraint or a child restraint specifically designed for children with special needs; provided, however, that such condition is duly certified in writing by a physician who shall state the nature of the disability as well as the reasons such restraints are inappropriate; provided, further, that no such certifying physician shall be subject to liability in a civil action for the issuance of or for the failure to issue such certificate. An operator of a motor vehicle who violates the provisions of this section shall be subject to a fine of not more than twenty-five dollars; provided, however, that said twenty-five dollar fine shall not apply to an operator of a motor vehicle licensed as a taxi cab not equipped with a child passenger restraint device.

A violation of this section shall not be used as evidence of contributory negligence in any civil action.

A person who receives a citation for a violation of any of the provisions of this section may contest such citation pursuant to section three of chapter ninety C. A violation of this section shall not be deemed to be a conviction of a moving violation of the motor vehicle laws for the purpose of determining surcharges on motor vehicle premiums pursuant to section one hundred and thirteen B of chapter one hundred and seventy-five.