CAR SEAT SAFETY

Child safety seats offer the best protection for children in the event of a vehicle crash. Child restraints work best when installed and used as directed by the manufacturer. They are most effective and safer when children use an age appropriate car seat. 

Three out of four child safety seats are improperly installed, according to research by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. For proper instructions, please visit the child passenger safety website. www.nhtsa.gov/cps.

Unfortunately, motor vehicle crashes remain a leading cause of death for children. Approximately one third of children under the age of thirteen who are involved in fatal passenger vehicle crashes are not in car seats or secured by a seat belt. When child safety seats are used correctly in the second row, prevention in fatalities are 60 percent more effective.

All 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have laws requiring children to be restrained in child safety seats in motor vehicles. Failure to read and follow the child safety seat instructions, in addition to vehicle owner manual instructions regarding installation, could result in serious injury or death as a result of a failure of the child safety seat to be securely or properly restrained.

NHTSA recommends that children who have outgrown their child safety seats should ride in booster seats until they are at least 8 years old, unless they are 4’9″ or taller. Children under thirteen are safest when properly buckled in the back seat of a motor vehicle.