In the United States, car seat laws are passed and regulated on a state-by-state basis. This means that child passengers in the state of California, where the law states that children must remain rear-facing until at least two years of age, are legally required to be safer in the car than those in Alaska, where children can be turned to face forward when they weigh only 20 pounds. Still, other states - like Arizona and Georgia - do not address the importance of rear-facing in their legislation at all. In fact, fewer than 1/4 of all US states address rear-facing child seats even once in their car safety laws.  

In my opinion, this is a gross disservice to our country's children and their parents, especially in the states where the law simply hasn't caught up with the evidence. 

And the evidence is shocking:
Studies have found that children 0-23 months old are up to 500% safer, and have a lower probability of serious injury when being restrained in a rear-facing car seat as opposed to riding in a forward-facing position for crashes of all directions. Further research has found that children in rear-facing car seats have a 75% lower chance of sustaining life-threatening injuries when compared with their forward-facing peers. This is primarily due to the fact that, when in this position, a crash results in the head moving farther into the car seat "cocoon" with additional protection being offered by the side wings. 

The data emerging about the importance of rear-facing actually resulted in an updated recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) who, in 2018, recommended that children "remain in a rear-facing car safety seat as long as possible." Before this though, the AAP specified that children should remain rear-facing until at least two. 

With all this knowledge, it is simply unacceptable for states to not address the importance of young children facing rear in the car. And, because most state laws fail to protect the most innocent among us, I feel it is time for the federal government to step in. 

In this country, the most common cause of death in children is unintentional injury, and the most common cause of unintentional injury is car accidents. We have given states the opportunity and time to update their legislation to match the current evidence, and few have taken it. Sign this petition today to reflect the recommendations of the AAP, and require all children in the US to remain facing rear until at least 2 years of age.