State and city laws governing the use of child restraint systems in rideshare vehicles and taxicabs: requirements and responsibility.

OBJECTIVES

To identify, describe and critique state and local policies related to child passenger safety in for-hire motor vehicles including ridesharing and taxis.

METHODS

We used standard legal research methods to collect policies governing the use of child restraint systems (CRS) in rideshare and taxi vehicles for all 50 states and the 50 largest cities in the USA. We abstracted the collected policies to determine whether the policy applies to specific vehicles, requires specific safety restraints in those vehicles, lists specific requirements for use of those safety restraints, seeks to enhance compliance and punishes noncompliance.

RESULTS

All 50 states have policies that require the use of CRS for children under a certain age, weight or height. Seven states exempt rideshare vehicles and 28 states exempt taxis from their CRS requirements. Twelve cities have relevant policies with eight requiring CRS in rideshare vehicles, but not taxis, and two cities requiring CRS use in both rideshare vehicles and taxis.

CONCLUSION

Most states require CRS use in rideshare vehicles, but not as many require CRS use in taxis. Though states describe penalties for drivers who fail to comply with CRS requirements, these penalties do not actually facilitate the use of CRS in rideshare or taxis. Furthermore, there is ambiguity in the laws about who is responsible for the provision and installation of the restraints. To prevent serious or fatal injuries in children, policy-makers should adopt policies that require, incentivise and facilitate the use of CRS in rideshare vehicles and taxis.