California requires a child to ride in a rear-facing child passenger restraint system when the child is under which set of limits?
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A.
Under 8 years old or under 4 feet 9 inches tall.
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B.
Under 2 years old, under 40 pounds, and under 3 feet 4 inches tall. Correct
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C.
Under 8 years old and under 40 pounds.
The answer is "Under 2 years old, under 40 pounds, and under 3 feet 4 inches tall."
The rear-facing rule is a triple test. A child stays rear-facing only while all three conditions apply at once: under 2 years old, under 40 pounds, and under 3 feet 4 inches tall. Drivers who remember only the age-8 or 4-foot-9 numbers for graduating out of a child restraint carry them back to the rear-facing question and pick A, missing that the earlier stage uses its own, tighter set of numbers.
The traps in the wrong answers
A. Under 8 years old or under 4 feet 9 inches tall.
The 8-year and 4-foot-9 numbers describe the general rear-seat child restraint rule that governs the next age tier, not the rear-facing requirement. Rear-facing uses the tighter under-2, under-40, under-3-foot-4 limits, and all three must apply. This answer reaches for the age-8 or 4-foot-9 numbers for graduating out of a child restraint and applies them to every earlier stage, missing that the rear-facing tier sits above it with its own set of limits.
C. Under 8 years old and under 40 pounds.
This mashes two adjacent bullets together. The 40-pound cutoff belongs to the rear-facing bullet, but the age-8 limit governs the next tier (any child restraint in a rear seat). California's rear-facing rule keeps age-2 as the age cutoff and adds a height limit of 3 feet 4 inches. This answer fuses the age-8 cutoff from the general rear-seat rule with the 40-pound weight from the rear-facing rule, blending two neighboring bullets into a hybrid that appears in neither.
This question tests your knowledge of Safety Belts & Restraints in California. Source: California Driver Manual, "Child Restraint System and Safety Seats," p.66..
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