Child Safety Seats They may squirm, wriggle, kick and scream, but young kids have to be buckled into child safety seats. Every state has laws on its books that require it - and with good reason: the leading cause of deaths among children three to 14 years old is vehicle crashes. It's estimated that nearly 9,000 young lives have been saved from 1978 to 2008 due to the use of child safety seats. You can find a star rating system for child seats at nhtsa.gov/Safety/Ease-of-Use. The guidelines for selecting the right restraints are quite simple. NHTSA has four recommendations:
From infancy to one year old: Keep infants in the back seat and in rear-facing child seats for as long as possible - up to the height or weight limit of the particular seat.
From one year old to four years old: They should ride in forward-facing child seats in the back seat until they reach the upper weight or height limit of the particular seat.
From four years old to eight years old: Have them ride in booster seats in the back seat until the vehicle's seat belts properly fit.
Eight years old and older: They can use the adult seat belt in the back seat if it properly fits - that is, if the lap belt lies across the upper thighs and the shoulder belt fits across the chest.
Small children are safest in back for two reasons. First, the front seat provides additional impact protection during a front-end collision. Second, activated passenger-side air bags pose a significant risk to young kids. If the new vehicle you fancy doesn’t have a rear seat, then select one that has a switch to deactivate the passenger-side air bag. Pickup trucks and sports cars without rear seats should have these switches. Make sure the child seat is properly secured, referring to both the seat’s instructions and the vehicle owner’s manual. Take advantage of free seat inspections offered by local fire departments and dealerships, because the vast majority of safety seats are not properly secured. NHTSA has a search tool on its site to help you find a child seat inspection station to ensure that the seat gets installed correctly.
Always register your car seat with the manufacturer. That way you will be notified in the event of a recall (and they happen all the time). You can also search for recalls on the NHTSA website. It’s not recommended that you use a seat that was not new when you acquired it. There is no way to know if it may have already been involved in an accident and that the structural integrity of the restraint has been compromised.
LATCH Child Restraint Systems Almost every car seat and most vehicles manufactured since September 1, 2002 are required to have the LATCH system. LATCH makes it easier to install the child seat correctly - the first time and every time. LATCH (which stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children system) is a specialized way for your child’s safety seat to attach to your vehicle's seat without using its seat belt. The LATCH system is designed to simplify child seat installation and consequently reduce the number of child injuries and deaths that occur from improperly secured child safety seats. Vehicle manufacturers are required to install top tether anchors behind the backseat of all models except convertibles. These anchors must be in three seating positions. (Some convertibles also have tether anchors as a safety feature.) Manufacturers must also install lower vehicle anchor points where the vehicle’s backseat cushion and seat back meet. These lower anchor points must be in at least two seating positions. Child safety seat manufacturers are also required to have two lower connectors at the bottom of the safety seats that fasten to the vehicle’s lower vehicle anchors. In addition, most forward-facing child safety seats are required to have top tether straps that attach to the vehicle’s top tether anchors.
For all other child safety seats, follow the seat manufacturer’s instructions and your vehicle’s owner’s manual for specific instructions. Seat belts that lock only in emergencies may need a locking clip to hold child seats correctly. In all cases, make sure the child seat harness is snug and stays on the child’s shoulders and that the shoulder straps are in the appropriate slots.
Call the Department of Transportation’s Auto Safety Hotline (888) 327-4236 or visit www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/recalls/childseat.cfm find out if your child seat has ever been recalled.
