Safety Belts & Child Seats

2025 Oregon Child Passenger Safety Regional Conference

Oregon Child Passenger Safety Regional Conference logo

We are excited to bring these one-day Child Passenger Safety events packed with what you will need to help develop your technician skills and maintain your CPST certification.

Events are FREE to Oregon Technicians however, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED TO ATTEND.

Event Dates and Locations

Saturday, August 16 - Hillsboro
Monday, August 18 - Grants Pass
Wednesday, August 20 - Keizer
Friday, August 22 - Sisters
Monday, August 25 - Pendleton

For more information, and to register for the conference, please visit the 2025 Oregon CPS Regional Conference webpage. *Attendance required for CEU credit.

Watch this 3-minute video presentation about Oregon's safety belt and child seat laws.

Wear Safety Belts video

Specific wording of statutory requirements can be found at ORS 811.210 - 811.225. *Note: You will have to scroll down to the appropriate statute number to locate the actual full text.

Adult Belt Law

Oregon law requires that all motor vehicle operators and passengers be properly secured with a safety belt or safety harness, unless all safety-belt equipped seating positions are occupied by other persons. This applies to passenger cars, pick up trucks, motor homes, and fee-based people transport carrying fifteen or fewer persons. Limited exemptions are allowed under ORS 811.215. Vehicle owners are required to maintain belt systems in working order.

Motor Homes

Motor homes are considered passenger vehicles under Oregon law and as such, adult belt and child seat requirements also apply to motor homes --- but only to forward-facing vehicle seating positions (those meeting federal safety standards for seat belt anchorages). Therefore, occupants should utilize all forward-facing belted positions before using side or rear-facing positions.

Commercial Vehicles

Oregon's safety belt law requires occupants of privately-owned commercial vehicles transporting 15 or fewer persons to use safety restraints including occupants of shuttles, taxis, limousines and vans. Among these types of vehicles, taxi cab drivers are the only occupants excepted from this rule.

ATVs

Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is implementing agency laws and rules relating to the use of ATVs.

Medical Exemptions

ORS 811.220 The Director of Transportation shall issue a certificate of exemption under ORS 811.215 for any person on whose behalf a statement signed by a physician, nurse practitioner, or physician’s assistant is presented to the Department of Transportation. The statement must clearly explain why the use of a child safety restraint system, safety belt or safety harness by the person would be impractical or harmful to the person by reason of physician condition, medical problem or body size.

A safety restraint exemption cannot be issued for commercial drivers per Federal Code 392-16.

Faxes cannot be accepted. Please send ORIGINAL copies only.

Safety Belt Medical Exemption Form

For more information, please contact the Transportation Safety Office at 503-986-4199.

Child Safety Seat Law

Child passengers must be restrained in child safety seats until they weigh forty pounds or reach the upper weight limit for the car seat in use. Infants must ride rear-facing until they reach two years of age unless the child turned age one prior to May 26, 2017.

Booster Seat Law

Children over forty pounds or who have reached the upper weight limit for their forward-facing car seat must use a child seat with harness or a booster to 4'9" tall or age eight and the adult belt fits correctly.

Rear Seating for Children

There is no Oregon law specifically prohibiting children from riding in the front seat of passenger vehicles. However, a rear-facing infant seat cannot be placed in a front seating position that is equipped with an airbag because this would violate Oregon's requirement for "proper use" of a child safety seat. There is a national "best practice recommendation" calling for rear seating through age twelve.

National "Best Practice" Recommendations

Safety experts from USDOT have published national best practices recommendations which would keep children in each type of child seat longer than Oregon law prescribes, in addition to back seating through age twelve.

Belt or Booster

Belt fit can vary greatly from one vehicle to another and one child to another. If your child meets Oregon's legal requirements for moving from a booster seat to safety belt but you still have doubts about whether your child fits in the belt in your particular vehicle, then the following simple test can help. Place your child in the vehicle without a booster seat and then ask these questions. Until you can answer YES to all of the questions, your child should stay in a booster seat.

Can the child sit all the way back against the seat of the vehicle with their knees bent comfortably over the edge of the vehicle’s seat?

Do the child’s feet rest flat on the floor?

Does the shoulder belt lay flat across the collarbone and across the child’s chest? The belt should never lay across the child’s neck.

Does the lap belt lay low across the child’s the thighs? The belt should never lay across their stomach.

Can the child stay comfortably seated like this for the whole trip?

The Corvallis Fitting Station is open on the second Tuesday of each month from 9 am - 11 am by appointment.
Call 541-766-6961.
Location: Corvallis FD Station #1
400 NW Harrison Blvd.
Corvallis, OR 97330

The Willamette Valley Medical Center in McMinnville holds a car seat clinic on the 4th Saturday of each month from 10 am - 12pm.
Location: Willamette Valley Medical Center
2700 SE Stratus Avenue, McMinnville, OR 97128
Call 503-435-6400 for more information or follow the link to view the Schedule of Willamette Valley Medical Center Classes and Events.

July 2025

Saturday, July 26 - 9:00am - 11:00am
Tualatin Hills Parks and Rec - Sponsored Doernbecher Injury Prevention Program
Location: TBD
Call 503-418-5666 to schedule an appointment

August 2025

Saturday, August 9 - 9:00am - 11:00am
Neighborhood Health Clinic - Sponsored Doernbecher Injury Prevention Program
10690 NE Cornell Road, Hillsboro, OR 97124
Call 503-418-5666 to schedule an appointment

Sunday, August 24 - 9:00am - 11:00am
Tonkin Toyota - Sponsored Doernbecher Injury Prevention Program
750 SE 122nd Avenue, Portland, OR 97233
Call 503-418-5666 to schedule an appointment

Tuesday, August 26, 2025 -3:30pm - 5:30pm
Stayton Fire
1988 W Ida Street
Stayton, OR 97383
See the Mid-Valley Car Seat Coalition flyer for more information

Thursday, August 28 - 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Portland Police Traffic - Sponsored Doernbecher Injury Prevention Program
4735 E Burnside Street, Portland, OR 97215
Call 503-418-5666 to schedule an appointment

September 2025

Tuesday, September 9 - 3:00pm - 5:30pm
Keizer Fire
661 Chemawa Road
Keizer, OR 97303
See the Mid-Valley Car Seat Coalition flyer for more information

Saturday, September 13 - 9:00am - 11:00am
Forest Grove Fire - Sponsored Doernbecher Injury Prevention Program
1919 Ash Street, Forest Grove, OR 97116
Call 503-418-5666 to schedule an appointment

October 2025

Saturday, October 4 - 9:00am - 11:00am
Century High School - Sponsored Doernbecher Injury Prevention Program
2000 SE Century Blvd., Hillsboro, OR 97123
Call 503-418-5666 to schedule an appointment

Saturday, October 25 - 9:00am - 11:00am
AMR Clackamas - Sponsored Doernbecher Injury Prevention Program
12438 SE Capps Road, Clackamas OR 97015
Call 503-418-5666 to schedule an appointment

November 2025

Tuesday, November 11 - 3:00pm - 5:30pm
Keizer Fire
661 Chemawa Road
Keizer, OR 97303
See the Mid-Valley Car Seat Coalition flyer for more information

Saturday, November 15 - 9:00am - 11:00am
Forest Grove Fire - Sponsored Doernbecher Injury Prevention Program
1919 Ash Street, Forest Grove, OR 97116
Call 503-418-5666 to schedule an appointment

January 2026

Tuesday, January 13 - 3:00pm - 5:30pm
Keizer Fire
661 Chemawa Road
Keizer, OR 97303
See the Mid-Valley Car Seat Coalition flyer for more information

Oregon’s safety belt overtime enforcement program is a statewide traffic safety enforcement program (TSEP) that seeks to reduce the number of motor vehicle-related deaths and injuries by increasing public awareness of laws regarding the three most prevalent factors contributing to traffic crash injuries: safety restraint use, speed, and impaired drivers.