In a comprehensive review of our nation’s child restraint laws, the National Safe Kids Campaign said it found "startling gaps in coverage related to age, seating position and lack of specific child safety seat use." The organization commissioned a study that rated child occupant protection laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and it found 24 states received F’s for laws that failed to protect children in motor vehicles properly.

The Safe Kids Campaign has recommended a model law that requires correct restraint of all children, in all seating positions, in the care of all drivers.

The study discovered in many states children are legally allowed to ride completely unrestrained in the back seat of a vehicle, while other states allow young children to ride improperly restrained in only an adult seat belt. It also found no state fully protects all child passengers ages 15 and younger. Specifically, children ages 6-8 are not required to ride in booster seats in any state.

While the general view is that most states require children to be restrained in child safety seats or boosters, 34 states allow child passengers to ride unrestrained in some cases. Among these exemptions are exceptions for nursing mothers, out-of-state vehicles, non-state resident drivers and overcrowded cars.

"These harsh grades reflect the harsh reality that too many states allow adults to improperly protect their children," said Heather Paul, Ph.D., executive director of the National Safe Kids Campaign.

To prove the severity of the problem: Each year nearly 1,800 children 14 and under die in motor vehicle crashes, and more than 274,000 children are injured. Riding unrestrained is the greatest risk factor for death and injury among child occupants of motor vehicles. Children who are not restrained are far more likely to suffer severe injuries or even death in motor vehicle crashes, yet approximately 30 percent of children ages 4 and younger ride unrestrained, and of those who do buckle up, four out of five children are improperly secured. Further, only 5 percent of 4- to 8-year-olds ride in booster seats.