Highway Safety

Rear Facing Seat

• To 2 years of age, or until the highest weight and height limit allowed by the car seat manufacturer.

Forward Facing Seat

• To upper height and weight limits of car seat, approximately 4 years and 40-65 pounds.
• The top tether should be used until child weighs 40 pounds.

Booster Seat

• From approximately 4 to at least 8 years old or 4’9”
• Use a high back or backless belt positioning booster
• Lap-belt only seating positions should not be used with booster seat

Adult Seat Belt

• Age 8 or older and at least 4’9”
• Lap belt lays across upper thighs and shoulder belt across chest; knees bend at seat edge

Car Seat Recommendations: Choosing the Right Seat

Child Restraint Basics – Pocket Card
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) created a pocket card which provides child restraint basic recommendations to parents and caregivers. The card features restraint types and positions based on a child’s height, weight and age. The card is free.

If you would like a card mailed to you, please contact:

Lisa Losness, Child Passenger Safety Program
ITD Office of Highway Safety
Phone: 208-334-8103
Lisa.Losness@itd.idaho.gov

• Espanol Recomendaciones de seguridad para el nino pasajero
• La Inspección del Asiento de Seguridad Para Niños
• WHALE brochure in Spanish

For more information on distribution points or to get a WHALE Kit, please contact:

Lisa Losness, Child Passenger Safety Program
ITD Office of Highway Safety
Phone: 208-334-8103
Lisa.Losness@itd.idaho.gov

Child Safety Seat Ratings
The purpose of NHTSA’s ease of use rating program is to educate parents and caregivers about child safety seat features and which are easy to use.

• Child Safety Seat Ease of Use Ratings
• Child Safety Seat RECALLS

Car Seat Registration
One of the most important goals for child passenger safety is to make sure that car seats and boosters meet all Federal Safety Standards. If it is determined that a car seat or booster doesn’t comply with the required safety standards, a recall may occur so that the manufacturer can fix the problem. Registering your seat makes sense because it gives the manufacturer the ability to contact you about recalls and safety notices.

• Click here to learn how to register your car seat or booster.

Used Child Safety Seats
Don’t buy or sell used car seats. Although it is nice to share and reuse baby items, car seats are one product that shouldn’t be reused. The components used in the typical car seat deteriorate and weaken over time. Car seats have an expiration date stamped on the back of the seat; the expiration date is typically six years from the seat’s manufacture date. Click here for details on retiring a car seat.

The above information provided courtesy of consumer reports – Consumer Reports is published by Consumers Union. Both Consumer Reports and Consumers Union are not-for-profit organizations that accept no advertising. Neither has any commercial relationship with any advertiser or sponsor on this site.

• Click here to find locations for Car Seat Inspection sites in your area.

If no sites are available, contact Carma McKinnon at carma@lemhicountyidaho.org or 208-742-1683.

It is important to read and clearly understand all safety and booster seat installation and use instructions. Having your child safety seat initially checked and re-checked often by a trained professional increases your child’s chances of escaping injury in the event of a car crash.

Child Passenger Safety Technicians train properly fit child safety seats. Out of the thousands of child safety seats installed in vehicles over 80% of them are incorrectly installed according to National surveys conducted by NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). The NHTSA Standardized Child Passenger Safety Training course is designed to certify child safety advocates as Child Passenger Safety Technicians. The course provides attendee’s with the knowledge and skills necessary to provide parents with accurate and consistent information regarding child car safety seats.

The Idaho Office of Traffic and Highway Safety recommends that anyone providing parent technical information regarding their child’s car seat should attend this valuable training course. The Idaho CPS program provides free Child Passenger Safety Inspection Stations through our hospitals, fire departments, police departments, and District Public Health Department offices. At these locations parents and caregivers can learn how to safely transport children by using the properly fitted child safety seats.

If you wish to take this course, you must register online at the National SAFE KIDS. This site describes policies and administrative requirements for course registration and certification for the National Standardized Child Passenger Safety Training Program. For those contemplating taking the course, please keep in mind that this is not an easy course and is physically exerting. It is a full 3 or 4 day course with a child safety seat check, hands on skills and Checks for Understanding that must be passed. It also requires the physical ability to climb in and out of cars, placing pressure on car seats to install them properly. It is not recommended for persons with back problems to take this course. To register you will need to be prepared to use a credit card to charge your registration fee of $95.00. This registration fee includes your manual and your 2-year NHTSA National Child Passenger Safety Certification. To remain current CPS technicians must recertify every 2 years.

If you have questions after you have read this page, or for details regarding course availability in Idaho, contact Carma McKinnon at 208-742-1683 or carma@lemhicountyidaho.org.

Emergency service personnel across Idaho have a tool available to help identify small children involved in motor vehicle crashes. The WHALE program “We Have A Little Emergency” gives instant identification of a child in a car safety seat in the event that an adult in the car is injured and unable to talk.

The WHALE identification card provides emergency personnel information to identify young children involved in a crash. Sometimes just knowing a child’s name can help rescue workers comfort young patients. Rescue workers can refer to an identification card attached to the safety seat and find the child’s name, medical information and who to contact in case of emergency. Stickers affixed to car windows and the safety seat also alert emergency workers that the child’s information is close at hand.

• WHALE brochure in English
• The “We Have A Little Emergency” (WHALE) brochure has been translated to Spanish.
• WHALE brochure in Spanish

The WHALE Kit includes:

• An Identification Card — containing a space for a photograph of the child, and important information about the child in the safety seat, such as the child’s name, date of birth, pertinent medical information, and whom to contact in an emergency.
• Two WHALE (seat) Stickers — the WHALE logo, to be attached to each side of the child safety seat.
• Two WHALE (window) Stickers — featuring the WHALE logo, to be attached to the lower rear corner of the vehicle’s windows.

For more information on distribution points or to get a WHALE Kit in English or Spanish, please contact:

Lisa Losness, Child Passenger Safety Program
ITD Office of Highway Safety
Phone: 208-334-8103
Lisa.Losness@itd.idaho.gov

Idaho’s Child Restraint Law

Idaho’s child passenger safety law requires all children 6 years of age or younger be properly restrained in an appropriate child safety restraint. This is a primary law, and current infraction penalties and fees may be reviewed on the Idaho Supreme Court’s website Infraction Penalty Schedule.

• Idaho Code 49-672

Child Passenger Safety Laws in Other States
If you happen to be travelling in other states, please be aware that other state laws differ from Idaho’s. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the Virgin Islands require child safety seats for infants and children fitting specific criteria. Click here for other states’ laws pertaining to child passenger safety.

Partners for Child Passenger Safety

• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia www.chop.edu/centers-programs/car-seat-safety-kids
• Safe Kids Worldwide www.safekids.org
• Idaho Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics www.idahoaap.org
• Car Seat Blog carseatblog.com
• Child Care Aware www.childcareaware.org
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Child Safety
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Car Seats and Booster Seats
• Carma McKinnon, CPS Coordinator: carma@lemhicountyidaho.org

Below are links to sample distracted driving programs for your employees.

• Occupational Safety and Health Organization (OSHA)
• National Safety Council (NSC) – Employer tool kit for distracted driving

Idaho Resources

• Television PSA’s are available at the following Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) YouTube page under Highway Safety Messages: https://www.youtube.com/user/idahoitd
• Posters and other items available through the following “Educational Materials Order Form” link: https://apps.itd.idaho.gov/Apps/EducationalMaterialOrderForm/
• “Your Text Can Wait” Public Service Announcement – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvqF_bHdar0&list=UUULOgd2FNzmWtXfGeb-3vlA
• Focus on the Drive – http://justfocusonthedrive.com/
• Distracted Driving Task Force

National Resources

• NHTSA’s page for distracted driving: https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/distracted-driving
• GHSA (Governors Highway Safety Association) – texting laws http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html
• Utah – ZERO Fatalities, A Goal We Can All Live With – Texting and Driving Destroys Lives video http://www.zerofatalities.com/
• TxtResponsibly.org, raise awareness for the dangers of texting and driving – http://txtresponsibly.org/
• Hands-Free Info – reduce the confusion over local laws, http://handsfreeinfo.com

In an effort to provide materials for outreach and education, and to help raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving, the Distracted Driving Task Force generated a toolkit of information for public use and mass distribution.

To get involved, please use the following toolkit information to help promote attentive driving for life:

Crash Information and Statistics

TEMPLATES

Employer Policies

• Policy
• Memo
• Customer Letter

Newsletters

• Schools
• Newspaper
• Law Enforcement

Presentations

• Invite
• PowerPoint
• Thank You
• For a list of presenters, email Josephine.Middleton@itd.idaho.gov

Press Releases

• Distracted Driving
• Law Enforcement

Idaho’s Seat Belt Law: Idaho Code 49-673

Idaho law requires everyone in a vehicle to wear safety restraints. Other provisions under the law include:

• Adult violators, 18 and older, are subject to a $10 citation.
• An adult driver is ticketed for passengers younger than 18 who are not properly restrained.
• If the driver is younger than 18 and the driver or any occupant younger than 18 fails to wear a seat belt, court costs are added to the fine. Current infraction penalties and fees may be reviewed on the Idaho Supreme Court’s website, specific link: Infraction Penalty Schedule
• A law enforcement officer can issue a citation solely for a safety restraint violation, but there must be another violation leading to the traffic stop.

Serious and, often times, fatal crashes are the result of distracted driving. Anytime you take your eyes off the road, your hands off the steering wheel, and/or take your mind off driving, you become a distracted driver.

Resist the urge to text, talk on a cell phone, eat or drink while driving.

Resource

• NHTSA Teen Driving Website
• Idaho High School Distracted Driving Program
• National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) – http://www.noys.org
• responsibility.org

What are Local Teens Doing?
Youth all over the state are doing wonderful things to get the word out about distracted driving. Did your school create a message to teens about the dangers of texting and driving or distracted driving. If so, tell us about it. We’d love to share it with other teens around the state. Send us a link to your YouTube video, the PSA, or a .jpg of the artwork to: ohsweb@itd.idaho.gov

• Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP)
• SHSP Addendum: Idaho Vulnerable Road User Assessment 2023

In order to receive the Federal highway safety funding, each State must submit a High Safety Plan, which includes a description of the processes used by the State to identify its highway safety problems, define its highway safety performance measures, set goals for those performance measures, and develop projects and activities to address its problems and achieve its goals. The Plan, approved by the Governor’s Representative for Highway Safety, must also include descriptions of the projects and activities the State plans to implement and link the countermeasure strategies and projects to the goals identified in the Plan.

• FFY 2024-2026 Triennial Highway Safety Plan
• FFY 2023 Highway Safety Plan
• FFY 2022 Highway Safety Plan
• FFY 2021 Highway Safety Plan
• FFY 2020 Highway Safety Plan
• FFY 2019 Highway Safety Plan

Each State is also required to submit an Annual Report within 90 days of the end of the Federal Fiscal Year which evaluates the State’s progress in meeting its highway safety goals, using performance measures identified in the Highway Safety Plan and describes how the projects and activities funded during the fiscal year contributed to meeting the State’s highway safety goals.

• FFY 2022 Annual Report
• FFY 2021 Annual Report
• FFY 2020 Annual Report
• FFY 2019 Annual Report
• FFY 2018 Annual Report

• FFY 2024 Annual Grant Agreement – Project Award

A “traffic safety problem” is an identifiable subgroup of drivers, pedestrians, vehicles, or roadways that is statistically higher in collision experience than normal expectations. Problem identification involves the study of relationships between collisions and the population, licensed drivers, registered vehicles, and vehicle miles traveled, as well as characteristics of specific subgroups that may contribute to collisions.

The process used to identify traffic safety problems began initially by evaluating Idaho’s experience in each of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA’s) eight highway safety priority areas. These were program areas determined by NHTSA to be most effective in reducing motor vehicle collisions, injuries and deaths. Consideration for other potential traffic safety problem areas came from analyzing Idaho collision data, suggestions from Idaho Traffic Safety Commission (ITSC) members, suggestions by Office of Highway Safety staff, and by researching issues identified by other states. All traffic safety problems must be validated with supporting data and there must be an effective countermeasure to address the problem that is eligible for Federal highway safety funds.

The traffic safety problem areas that have been identified and are currently being addressed are: Aggressive Driving, Occupant Protection, Impaired Driving, Distracted Driving, Youthful Drivers, Pedestrian Safety, Bicycle Safety, Motorcycle Safety, Traffic Records, and Emergency Medical Services.

An ignition interlock is an instrument designed to measure the BAC (breath alcohol concentration) of an individual, equipped with a camera and prevents a motorized vehicle from starting when the BAC is greater than or equal to .025.

The ignition interlock manufacturers on the Ignition Interlock Providers List have to be certified by the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) to meet the standards set forth by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for model specification for breath alcohol ignition interlock devices (BAIIDS).

• Ignition Interlock Providers List

If you are required to have an ignition interlock installed it is your responsibility to contact the companies listed to determine the nearest service center, cost, availability and appointment requirements.

The ITD does not install ignition interlocks, cannot recommend a company or provide the nearest installation center.

For question regarding ignition interlocks call the ITD Driver Services at 208-334-8000.

Coroner’s Report of Motor Vehicle Crash Fatality Form (Word Document)
HIPAA – NHTSA designated as a “Public Health Authority (PDF)
Idaho Statutes concerning reporting of deaths and testing of blood (PDF)

Idaho Statutes concerning Traffic Records and Highway Safety
All Idaho Statutes

• Traffic Records (Motor Vehicle Crashes) 49-1301 to 49-1316
• Driving Under the Influence (Testing, Penalties, Ignition Interlocks) 18-8001 to 18-8011
• Texting While Driving 49-1401A
• Open Container Law 23-505
• Seat Belt Law 49-673
• Child Safety Seat Law 49-672
• Motorcycle Helmet Law 49-666
• Motorcycle Endorsement Law 49-304
• Graduated Licensing Law 49-307
• Pedestrian & Bicycles Laws 49-701 to 49-724

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

• Safercar.gov
• National Center for Statistics and Analysis Data Resource Website

• Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA)
• Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
• Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)
• Bureau Of Transportation Statistics
• AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety
• Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
• Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
• Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS)
• SafetyBeltSafe U.S.A.
• Mothers Against Drunk Driving | MADD
• Motorcycle Safety | NHTSA
• Operation Lifesaver

Our Responsibilities: The primary responsibilities of the Office of Highway Safety are housing and maintaining the Statewide Collision Database, analyzing and disseminating collision statistics, and administering the federal section 402 highway safety funds.

Where we are located: The Office of Highway Safety is located in Boise, Idaho at the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) headquarters complex. The Office of Highway Safety is located in the East Annex building.

The physical address is: 3293 W. Jordan Street, Boise, Idaho 83703

The mailing address is: Idaho Transportation Department-Office of Highway Safety | PO Box 7129 Boise, ID 83707-1129

Phone: 208-334-8100 | Fax: 208-334-4430

How we fit in: The Office of Highway Safety is under the Division of Engineering Products and Plans (DEPP) of the Idaho Transportation Department and works closely with other Department sections and districts to promote safe driving behaviors and improve the safety of roadways on the state highway system.

The Director of the Idaho Transportation Department serves as the Governors highway safety representative. The Office of Highway Safety is managed by the Highway Safety Manager. The Office of Highway Safety consists of two teams: the records team and the programs team. The records team is responsible for maintaining, updating, and ensuring the quality of the statewide motor vehicle crash database. The program team is responsible for administering Idaho’s Federal highway safety funds and analyzing and disseminating the crash data. All funding is subject to approval by the Idaho Traffic Safety Commission and the Idaho Transportation Board.

Mission Statement: We support the Department’s mission of ”Your Safety. Your Mobility. Your Economic Opportunity” by conducting programs to eliminate traffic deaths, serious injuries, and economic losses through funding programs and activities that promote safe travel on Idaho’s transportation systems, and collecting and maintaining crash data and utilizing reliable crash statistics.

Vision Statement: To be the best in the country in promoting safety on Idaho’s roads in an efficient and effective manner.

Operating Philosophy: The Office of Highway Safety has a deep concern for the welfare of the traveling public, and believe our main purpose is to save lives through creative, highly visible, innovative, and effective highway safety programs for all modes of transportation. We are committed to our critical role within the State of Idaho, and the rest of the nation, to ensure safe travel on Idaho’s roadways. As stewards, we have a responsibility to make a positive impact on peoples’ lives.

The continuation and expansion of state and local partnerships is essential to our success. The primary mission is to identify existing and emerging traffic safety trends through statistically-based problem identification efforts, to efficiently provide decision makers accurate data for use in determining where the most effective highway safety investment is made. This includes the task to develop and implement highway safety programs that save lives and prevent injuries, and to provide appropriate safety funds that empower communities to address critical local traffic safety issues.

As highway safety professionals, we are committed to teamwork, integrity and maintaining a positive working environment. In our highway safety partnerships, we respond, cooperate, and provide accurate and timely service. We are a leader in a coordinated statewide effort to eliminate death and serious injury on all of Idaho’s roadways.