It turns out that four years ago the 2003 Legislature, while increasing age and weight requirements for vehicle child restraint seats, managed to wipe out Montana's primary child buckle-up law. Who knew?

Anyway, Rep. Michele Reinhart, D-Missoula, has introduced HB 277 to once again let police stop drivers who have unrestrained children in the car who are under 6 or who weigh less than 60 pounds.

The legislative mistake, only recently discovered, left Montana the only the state in the nation without a primary restraint law, according to Child Care Connections, a nonprofit child care referral agency in Bozeman.

There remains debate over whether Montana's seat belt law for adults should be a primary law, meaning that a person can be stopped and cited for a seat belt violation alone rather than only in connection with a traffic stop for some other reason, such as speeding. But we can't see how there could be much controversy over a law protecting our youngest children from being tossed about the interior of a car like a bag of sugar in an accident.

Research suggests that laws requiring that youngsters be properly restrained in moving vehicles cut highway fatalities by as much as 25 percent. It isn't surprising that testimony in favor of the bill came from highway patrol officers and other first responders. The bill would save a lot of young children's lives.