Maryland Car Seat Requirements by Age, Weight, and Height

Maryland car seat laws require every child under 16 to be restrained when riding in a vehicle, with the type of restraint tied to the child’s age, height, and weight. Children under two must ride rear-facing. Children under eight must be in a child safety seat unless they’ve already reached 4 feet 9 inches tall. Children eight through 15 must wear a seat belt in every seating position. The driver is responsible for making sure every passenger under 16 is properly restrained.¹

Rear-Facing Seats for Children Under Two

Every child under age two must ride in a rear-facing car seat that meets federal safety standards.¹ You keep your child rear-facing until they reach the weight or height limit printed on the seat’s label or in its manual. Most convertible and all-in-one seats allow rear-facing up to 40 or 50 pounds, so the vast majority of children won’t outgrow the seat before turning two.²

Rear-facing seats cradle a child’s head, neck, and spine during a collision and spread crash forces across the strongest parts of the body. If your child hits the manufacturer’s height or weight ceiling before their second birthday, you’d move them to a forward-facing seat at that point. That scenario is uncommon enough that the law effectively keeps most children rear-facing through age two.

Forward-Facing Seats

Once a child turns two and outgrows the rear-facing limits, a forward-facing seat with an internal harness is the next step. Maryland law doesn’t name forward-facing as a separate category, but it requires that every child under eight ride in a child safety seat used according to the manufacturer’s instructions.¹ The seat maker decides when to switch from rear-facing to forward-facing and when to move up to a booster.

Forward-facing seats use a five-point harness that clips at both shoulders, both hips, and the crotch. Install the seat using either the vehicle’s lower anchors or the seat belt, and always attach the top tether strap to the anchor point behind the seat. The tether limits how far your child’s head moves forward in a crash.

Booster Seats for Children Under Eight

Children under eight must ride in a child safety seat unless they are already 4 feet 9 inches tall.¹ For most kids in this age range who have outgrown the forward-facing harness, that means a booster seat. A booster lifts the child so the vehicle’s lap-and-shoulder belt sits properly: the lap portion across the upper thighs, not the stomach, and the shoulder belt across the middle of the chest and shoulder, not the neck.

If the seat belt still rides up against a child’s neck or cuts across the abdomen without a booster, the child isn’t ready to use the belt alone. A poorly positioned belt can cause serious internal injuries in a crash. The 4-foot-9-inch threshold reflects the height at which an adult seat belt fits a child correctly without extra positioning help.

Seat Belts for Children Eight Through Fifteen

Children between 8 and 15 who aren’t in a child safety seat must wear a seat belt in every seating position in the vehicle.³ That includes back-seat passengers, not just those riding up front.

After a child turns eight, nothing in the law stops you from keeping them in a booster if it still improves the belt fit. Many safety experts recommend doing exactly that until the seat belt fits well on its own, regardless of age.

Back Seat Placement and Airbag Safety

Maryland’s statute focuses on restraint type rather than seating position, but state safety guidance is clear: children under 13 should ride in the back seat.³ A front-passenger airbag deploys with enough force to seriously injure or kill a small child, especially one in a rear-facing seat, because the back of the car seat absorbs the full impact of the airbag at close range.

If you have no choice but to place a rear-facing seat in the front (for example, in a single-cab truck with no back seat), some vehicles have a manual switch to deactivate the passenger airbag. Check your owner’s manual for whether that option exists and how to use it. Never place a rear-facing car seat in front of an active airbag.

Exemptions and Special Rules

Maryland’s child safety seat requirements apply to passenger vehicles, trucks, and multipurpose vehicles registered or eligible to be registered in the state.¹ Taxis are exempt, so cab drivers are not required to provide car seats for child passengers. Ride-share services like Uber and Lyft do not share that exemption. If you’re riding with a child in a ride-share vehicle, the standard car seat rules apply in full.³

Medical Exemptions

If a child has a physical condition that makes a car seat impractical, a physician licensed in the state where the vehicle is registered can certify the exemption in writing. The certification must explain why the child’s weight, height, physical condition, or other medical reason prevents normal car seat use.¹ Keep the written statement in the vehicle whenever the child is traveling, because you’ll need it if an officer asks.

One Child Per Restraint

The law prohibits using a single car seat or seat belt to restrain more than one person at a time.¹ Two small children cannot share one booster or harness seat, even if they physically fit.

Penalties for Violations

A conviction for violating the child safety seat law carries a $50 fine.⁴ If more than one unrestrained child is in the vehicle at the same time, the state treats each child as a separate violation, which means separate fines.

This is a primary enforcement law. An officer can pull you over solely because they observe an unrestrained child in your vehicle.⁵ You don’t need to be speeding or committing another traffic offense first. A car seat violation is not classified as a moving violation, so it will not add points to your driver’s license.¹

A car seat violation also cannot be used against you as evidence of negligence in a civil lawsuit. If your child is injured in a crash and someone tries to argue the injury was partly your fault for a restraint issue, the statute blocks that argument.¹

Free Help Checking Your Installation

Maryland’s Kids In Safety Seats (KISS) program offers free assistance for parents who want their car seat checked by a trained technician. You can register for an in-person checkup event at locations around the state, or schedule a video appointment over Zoom if an in-person visit isn’t convenient. KISS also offers live webinars on child passenger safety. For questions or to find a low-cost car seat assistance program in your area, call the KISS helpline at 800-370-SEAT (7328).⁶

Roughly 46 percent of car seats are installed incorrectly, according to NHTSA inspection data, and most of the mistakes are easy to fix once someone points them out. A five-minute check by a certified technician is one of the simplest ways to confirm your seat actually works the way it’s supposed to.

1
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Transportation Code 22-412.2 – Child Safety Seats
2
MIEMSS. Child Passenger Safety and Occupant Protection
3
Maryland Department of Health. Kids In Safety Seats – Maryland Law
4
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Transportation Code 22-412.2
5
MIEMSS. Talking Points About Maryland’s Updated CPS Law
6
Maryland Department of Health. Kids In Safety Seats (KISS)