Under Maryland's 1991 child safety seat law, does a child need to be both 4 years old AND over 40 pounds before switching to a seat belt?

Plain-English summary

A 1991 amendment to Maryland's child safety seat law, TR §22-412.2(d), required "any person transporting a child under the age of 4 or weighing 40 pounds or less" to secure that child in a child safety seat. A state health department program coordinator asked the Attorney General to settle a dispute over how to read that "or": some people were reading it to mean that any child who had turned four could switch to a seat belt regardless of weight, while others read it to require both conditions, age four or older and more than 40 pounds, before a seat belt could replace a safety seat.

The opinion sided with the stricter reading. It held that the statute's "or" describes two separate triggers for the safety-seat requirement, either one is enough to require a safety seat, so a child avoids that requirement only by clearing both thresholds: turning four and weighing more than 40 pounds. The opinion supported this reading with the bill's legislative history, noting that the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee had specifically added the age-four requirement on top of an original weight-only draft, and that nothing in that history suggested lawmakers meant to let an older but lighter child skip the safety seat.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1991 and interpreted TR §22-412.2(d) and (e) of the Transportation Article as amended earlier that year by Chapter 466 (Senate Bill 216) of the Laws of Maryland 1991. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed Maryland's child safety seat requirements, including the specific age and weight thresholds. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify the current Maryland child passenger safety statute and its age and weight thresholds before relying on any specific rule described here.

Common questions

Can a 4-year-old ride in just a seat belt under Maryland's 1991 child safety seat law? According to this 1991 opinion, only if the child also weighs more than 40 pounds. The Attorney General concluded that TR §22-412.2(d) requires a child to clear both the age-four and the over-40-pound thresholds before a seat belt may replace a child safety seat.

What if a child is under 4 but weighs more than 40 pounds? The opinion concluded that such a child still must be secured in a child safety seat, since TR §22-412.2(d)'s "or" means either condition alone, being under four or weighing 40 pounds or less, triggers the safety-seat requirement.

Why didn't the legislature just use weight alone to decide when a child needs a safety seat? The opinion explained that the bill as originally introduced would have used weight as the only factor, but the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee amended it to add the age-four requirement on top of the weight requirement, specifically to make sure any child under four was secured in a safety seat regardless of weight.

Background and statutory framework

TR §22-412.2(d), as amended by Chapter 466 (Senate Bill 216) of the Laws of Maryland 1991, requires anyone transporting "a child under the age of 4 or weighing 40 pounds or less" to secure that child in a child safety seat, while the companion provision TR §22-412.2(e) gives caregivers of children under 10 who weigh more than 40 pounds the choice between a safety seat and a seat belt. The opinion applied the ordinary-meaning rule from Tatum v. Gigliotti and the purpose-driven construction principle from Potter v. Bethesda Fire Dep't, Inc. to read the statute's disjunctive "or" as creating two independent triggers for the safety-seat mandate, so that avoiding it requires clearing both the age and weight thresholds together.

The opinion also traced the bill's legislative history: the original text of Senate Bill 216 would have made a child's weight the sole factor, dropping any age reference from the former statute, but the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee amended the bill to add back an age requirement, explaining in its floor report that the change ensured "any child under the age of 4, regardless of whether the child weighs more than 40 pounds," would be secured in a safety seat. The opinion found nothing in that history suggesting the committee meant to let a child aged four or older who weighs 40 pounds or less skip the safety seat requirement, and, invoking the anti-surplusage principle from Mayor and City Council v. Hackley, declined to read the statute's weight requirement out of the law for that age group.

Citations and references

Statutes:

• TR §22-412.2(d), requiring a child safety seat for any child under age 4 or weighing 40 pounds or less
• TR §22-412.2(e), allowing a seat belt option for children under 10 who weigh more than 40 pounds
• Chapter 466 (Senate Bill 216) of the Laws of Maryland 1991, the 1991 amendment adding the age-four and 40-pound thresholds to §22-412.2(d)
• former TR §22-412.2(d), the pre-amendment version requiring safety seats only for children under age three

Cases:

• Tatum v. Gigliotti, 321 Md. 623, 628, 583 A.2d 1062 (1991), Maryland Court of Appeals decision on giving statutory words their ordinary meaning and avoiding results inconsistent with common sense
• Potter v. Bethesda Fire Dep't, Inc., 309 Md. 347, 353, 524 A.2d 61 (1987), Maryland Court of Appeals decision on construing statutes reasonably with reference to their purpose
• Mayor and City Council v. Hackley, 300 Md. 211, 283, 477 A.2d 1174 (1984), Maryland Court of Appeals decision on the principle against reading statutory language as surplusage

Source

• Landing page: https://oag.maryland.gov/resources-info/Pages/attorney-general%E2%80%99s-opinions.aspx
• Original PDF: https://oag.maryland.gov/resources-info/Documents/pdfs/Opinions/1991/Volume76_1991.pdf (this opinion appears at printed pages 405-408 of the bound annual volume; Maryland's site does not publish a standalone PDF of this opinion)

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain, the linked PDF is authoritative.

VEHICLE LAWS

Use of Child Safety Seats

November 25, 1991

Ms. Melissa Haas
Program Coordinator -Maryland KISS
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

You have requested our opinion on the meaning and scope of §22-412.2(d) of the Transportation Article ("TR" Article), which provides that "any person transporting a child under the age of 4 or weighing 40 pounds or less shall position and secure the child in a child safety seat." Specifically, you asked whether this provision requires that a child must be both four years of age or older and weigh more than 40 pounds in order to allow a person to secure the child in a seat belt rather than in a child safety seat. Apparently, some people maintain that the law permits any child who is four years of age or older to be transported without a child safety seat, even if the child weighs 40 pounds or less.

For the reasons given below, we conclude that TR §22-412.2(d) requires that a child must be both four years old or over and weigh more than 40 pounds in order to allow a person to secure the child in a seat belt rather than in a child safety seat. If this result is problematic as a policy matter, of course the General Assembly is free to amend the statute.

I

Analysis

The Court of Appeals has declared that "as a general principle of statutory construction the words of a statute are to be given their ordinary signification absent a manifest contrary intent on the part of the legislature. Results inconsistent with common sense are to be avoided." Tatum v. Gigliotti, 321 Md. 623, 628, 583 A.2d 1062 (1991). Statutes should also be "construed reasonably, with reference to the purpose to be accomplished ...." Potter v. Bethesda Fire Dep't, Inc., 309 Md. 347, 353, 524 A.2d 61 (1987).

In applying these principles of statutory construction to the interpretation of the scope and meaning of TR §22-412.2(d), we begin with its text, together with that of a companion provision, TR §22- 412.2(e):

(d) Any person transporting a child under the age of 4 or weighing 40 pounds or less shall position and secure the child in a child safety seat.

(e) Subject to the provisions of subsection (d) of this section, any person transporting a child weighing more than 40 pounds and who is less than 10 years of age shall:

(1) position and secure the child in a child safety seat; or

(2) seat and secure the child in a properly fastened seat belt or combination seat belt- shoulder harness.

TR §22-412.2(d) could not be clearer: If either of two things is true, the child is under the age of four, or the child weighs 40 pounds or less, then the child must be secured in a safety seat. TR §22-412.2(e) does not detract from the clarity of this requirement. It simply affords the option of seat belt use if the child is under 10 years of age and weighs more than 40 pounds.

This straightforward reading is consistent with the safety purpose of recent amendments to TR §22-412.2(d), Chapter 466 (Senate Bill 216) of the Laws of Maryland 1991. These amendments expanded the categories of children required to be secured in child safety seats. Whereas former TR §22-412.2(d) only required children under three years of age to be secured in child safety seats, Chapter 466 required children who are under the age of four or who weigh 40 pounds or less to be secured in child safety seats as well. The statute's manifest purpose was to increase the number of children required to be secured in safety seats.1

Furthermore, the legislative history fully supports our reading.
The original language contained in Senate Bill 216 deleted all of the references to a child's age that were contained in former TR §22- 412.2(d). Instead, the original draft of Senate Bill 216 would have made a child's weight the sole factor for use of a child safety seat.2

The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee amended Senate Bill 216 to add age as a factor in the determination of whether a child is required to be secured in a child safety seat. In its floor report, the committee declared that this amendment "adds language that requires that any child under the age of 4, regardless of whether the child weighs more than 40 pounds, be secured in a child safety seat." (Emphasis added.) This floor report clarifies the committee's intent to add an age requirement as well as a weight requirement. For example, the committee obviously intended this amendment to require children who are three years of age and who weigh 45 pounds to be secured in child safety seats. Thus, by enacting this amendment, the General Assembly was ensuring that all children under the age of four would be secured in child safety seats regardless of their weight.

Nothing in the legislative history of Senate Bill 216, however, indicates that the committee intended its amendment to exempt children aged four or older who weigh less than 40 pounds from the requirement that they be secured in a child safety seat. Had the General Assembly intended such a result, it could have simply deleted the weight requirement from the bill. But it did not, and a construction of the statute that treats the weight requirement as if it were not there is impermissible, given the manifest legislative objective. See, e.g., Mayor and City Council v. Hackley, 300 Md. 211, 283, 477 A.2d 1174 (1984) ("absent a clear indication to the contrary, a statute, if reasonably possible, is to be read so that no word, clause, sentence, or phrase is rendered surplusage, superfluous, meaningless, or nugatory").

II

Conclusion

In summary, it is our opinion that TR §22-412.2(d) requires a person to secure a child in a child safety seat if the child is either under four years of age or if the child weighs 40 pounds or less. Therefore, it is our opinion that a child must be both four years of age or older and weigh more than 40 pounds in order to allow a person to secure the child in a seat belt rather than in a child safety seat.

J. Joseph Curran, Jr.
Attorney General

Paul J. Ballard
Assistant Attorney General

Jack Schwartz
Chief Counsel
Opinions and Advice

1
The former provision required use of a child safety seat for children under the age of three and use of either a safety seat or seat belts for children between the ages of three and five.

2
If Senate Bill 216 had been enacted as introduced, TR §22-412.2(d) would have read as follows: "Any person transporting a child weighing 40 pounds or less shall correctly position and secure the child in a child safety seat."