Topeka ? A bill strengthening the state’s child passenger safety law won first-round Senate approval Wednesday, as legislators moved closer to requiring youngsters in vehicles to use special seats.

The national AAA has started a campaign to get legislatures to change state laws. Gov. Bill Graves has supported efforts in Kansas since the birth of his daughter, Katie, now 6.

Sen. Les Donovan, R-Wichita, speaks on a bill that would strengthen the child passenger safety law. The legislation received first-round approval from the full Senate on Wednesday.

“Child passenger safety has become especially important to him since he became a father,” said spokesman Don Brown.

Current law requires children younger than 4 to ride in child passenger safety seats and children from 4 through 13 to wear seat belts. Graves and public safety advocates say that seat belts don’t provide enough protection for some children.

The Senate bill, advanced on a voice vote, would require that children who are 4 through 6 years old or who weigh 40 pounds to 80 pounds ride in booster seats. Also, children from 7 through 15 would have to wear seat belts.

The fine for a first violation would remain at $20 but increase to $60 for the second.

Supporters of the bill expect it to pass in the Senate on final action, scheduled for today. The measure would go to the House, which has its own bill.

During debate Wednesday, Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Les Donovan said some children who have died or been injured in automobile accidents might be alive had the bill been in effect.

“If that’s not a good enough reason, I can’t come up with any other,” said Donovan, R-Wichita. “It’s absolutely the right thing, but I’m not going to preach at you.”

Critics said the bill represented governmental intrusion into the lives of families.

Sen. Ed Pugh, R-Wamego, said he trusted families to love and care for their children and the bill would “put the whack on them.”

“Folks in my area are simply tired of people in Topeka saying, ‘This is how you should raise your kids,”‘ Pugh said. “What’s next? Everybody gets a rubber helmet?”

Other critics suggested that poor families cannot afford to buy new booster seats to meet the bill’s requirements.

But when Sen. Rip Gooch, D-Wichita, raised that point with Donovan after the debate, Donovan replied, “Do you know what a funeral costs?”

In the House, the Transportation Committee endorsed a child passenger safety bill last week.

The House bill would require children from 4 through 7, weighing less than 80 pounds or less than 4 feet 9 inches tall to ride in booster seats. Other children, up to 16, would have to wear seat belts.

Both houses approved child passenger safety bills last year but could not resolve their differences. If the chambers approve different measures, negotiators would draft the final version. “We’ll mash together something that will work,” Donovan said.