During a press conference to promote a booster seat bill, Falmouth pediatrician Dr. Greg Parkinson demonstrated how a seatbelt would fit five year-old Dominick Howe. According to Dr. Parkinson, instead of fitting across the waist as a seatbelt should, the seatbelt would run across his chest, potentially causing his spine to snap in an accident. Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Michael Crosby (rear center) and Transportation Committee Chairman Sen. Steven Baddour (D-Methuen, rear right) support the bill

LEGISLATORS AND DOCTORS PUSH FOR BOOSTER SEAT BILL: Legislators, doctors, and police joined AAA of Southern New England at a State House press conference Tuesday calling for a law mandating the use of booster seats for more children. Falmouth pediatrician Greg Parkinson called booster seats "plastic penicillin", citing how effectively they can protect children in the case of a car accident, which he cited as the top cause of death for kids. Current Massachusetts law requires children up to five years old and under 40 pounds to be in some form of child restraint. The booster seat bill (S 2018), which passed the Senate last year, would increase the threshold for booster seats to 8 years old or 4’9", whichever comes first. Bill sponsor Sen. Steven Baddour (D- Methuen), chair of the Transportation Committee, said he is confident the bill will become law this year, claiming the bill was necessary so parents could be informed about the safest procedures for their children. "If you follow the law as it is currently written," he said, " you are putting your child in jeopardy." Rep. Michael Costello (D- Newburyport), co-chair of the Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, lent his support to the bill and said House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi "supports the bill 100 percent."