• Virginia's car seat laws are to ensure the safety of children riding in carssleeping in a car image by Renata Osinska from Fotolia.com
  
  According to the United States Department of Transportation, proper use of a car seat can reduce car accident fatalities of infants by 71 percent, and reduce car accident fatalities of toddlers between the ages of one and four by 54 percent. Cars are a necessity of life, but accidents do happen. Car seat belts and other safety features don't provide adequate protection for small children, toddlers and babies. Smaller bodies need extra protection scaled down to their body size to ensure safe travels, and Virginia has child seat laws that stipulate what safety features need to be provided for children up to 18 traveling in a car.
  
  

Newborn To Eight-Year-Olds

• Proper child car seats are required by law in Virginiachild in the car image by Natalia Pavlova from Fotolia.com
  
  Virginia's Child Restraint Device Law (Code of Virginia Article 13 - Section 46.2) stipulates that until a child's eighth birthday, it is mandatory to use a proper car seat. The seat must meet or exceed the standards of the United States Department of Transportation. Place car seats in the back seat of the car. If a car does not have a back seat, it is permissible to place the car seat in the front seat, as long as there are no airbags, or airbags have been deactivated.
  
  

Eight Years To 18 years

• According to Virginia Law, any child who is a passenger in a car needs to be wearing a seat belt.seat belt receptacle image by Albert Lozano from Fotolia.com
  
  Virginia's Passenger Safety Belt Law (Code of Virginia Article 12 - Section 46-2) requires anyone operating a vehicle to be responsible for making sure any passenger under the age of 18 is properly wearing a seat belt. Children are permitted to sit in either the back or the front seat. The law does not require deactivating airbags.
  
  

Car Seats

• Using a safety seat appropriate to a child`s height, weight and developmental stage is imperitive to their safety in a carseat belt image by Mat Hayward from Fotolia.com
  
  Safety seat manufacturers design a variety of seats to accommodate a child's size and stage of development, though the law in Virgina does not outline the specific type or style of seat or restraint that needs to be used for children of different sizes. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recommends that any child under 4 feet 9 inches or 80 lbs, even if they are over the legal age, be restrained in a car seat for their own safety. The NHTSA suggests that: babies up to a minimum of 20 lbs and one year of age be restrained in a rear-facing seat; toddlers between the ages of one and four years, weighing up to 40 lbs be restrained in a forward-facing child safety seat; and that children up to eight years old, weighing at least 80 lbs who have reached a height of at least 4 feet 9 inches use a booster seat.