Panel backs bill requiring child‑restraint rules to apply to larger modern passenger vehicles

Senate Bill 26, sponsored by Senators Catlin and Malka, seeks to update Colorado's child‑restraint statute by expanding the definition of 'motor vehicle' to include heavier passenger vehicles that today exceed the older 10,000‑pound gross vehicle weight rating threshold.

Sponsor remarks stressed that the statutory threshold was set when 10,000‑pound vehicles were typically commercial, and that today many family‑owned pickups and vans (for example, Ford F‑350 crew cab and similar models) exceed that GVWR while serving as personal passenger vehicles. "It's unfair that a family driving a Honda Accord is technically treated differently than a family choosing to drive an oversized pickup truck," Senator Catlin said.

Captain Brandon Athletic (Colorado State Patrol) told the committee the Patrol supports the bill and said the change is a narrow technical fix to ensure vehicle families use car seats and boosters in heavier passenger vehicles. Claire Decker, injury prevention manager at Children's Hospital Colorado, said hospital data show increases in crash‑related visits and urged the committee to apply recent child‑passenger safety improvements uniformly across vehicle weight classes.

Local leaders from mountain communities testified that increased visitation and commuter patterns put children at risk on corridors such as Highway 135 between Gunnison and Crested Butte. Witnesses asked the committee to adopt the bill to ensure consistent protections regardless of vehicle weight class.

After the testimony and a brief amendment phase with no committee amendments offered, the committee voted to report SB26 out of Committee Whole with a favorable recommendation and place it on the consent calendar.