Car Seat Safety Tips

What is the safest way for my child to ride in a vehicle?

All children 12 and under should ride properly restrained in a back seat.
Infants should ride in rear-facing safety seats as long as possible according to the manufacturer instructions. They must ride rear facing until they are at least 12 months old and weigh at least 20 pounds.
Children who are at least 1 year old, weigh 20-40 pounds and can no longer ride rear-facing should ride in a forward-facing child safety seat.
Children over 40 pounds should be correctly secured in a belt positioning booster or other appropriate child restraints until the adult lap and shoulder belts fit correctly (usually around age 8).
Once the vehicle safety belts fit children, both lap and shoulder belts should be correctly used.
Any safety seat must be installed and used according to the manufacturer's instructions and your vehicle owner's manual.

Why should I use child safety seats and safety belts?

Even a relatively minor crash can be an extremely violent event. An unrestrained passenger can be thrown with a force that is several times his or her weight. Crash forces can also cause vital internal organs to shift violently, allowing for additional injuries. Properly used safety belts can help to minimize a passenger’s motion in a crash, prevent ejection, distribute crash forces over the strongest parts of the body and protect the head and spinal cord.

Since vehicle safety belts don't fit the physical and developmental needs of young children, appropriate child safety seats are necessary. All states and territories of the United States have child occupant protection laws in place. Because they are only minimal requirements, however, most state laws do not fully represent "best practice." We must remember that laws vary from state to state, but the laws of physics remain constant. Crashes do not become less violent when we drive across state lines.

When can I turn my infant forward facing?

The American Academy of Pediatrics has recently revised their recommendations to say that children should ride in rear-facing child safety seats as long as possible. They also maintain that children should be a MINIMUM of 12 months old AND weigh at least 20 pounds before they face the front of the vehicle. Until that time, their bones and ligaments are not developed enough to withstand forward-facing crash forces. The rear-facing position reduces the risk of spinal cord injury in a frontal collision, since the safety seat's shell supports the neck and spreads crash forces across the entire back. Most infant-only seats have a limit of 20 or 22 pounds, but most current convertible safety seats have rear-facing limits of 30 pounds or more. These seats provide better protection for children, even beyond their first birthdays.

My son's feet are touching the back of the vehicle seat. Should I turn him to face front now?

At one time, a few manufacturers were concerned about the potential for leg injuries. At this point, we are not aware of any documented injury cases resulting from that situation. We are, however, aware of many documented neck injury cases from turning children around too early. As a result, most manufacturers have softened the related warning in recent versions of their instructions. All manufacturers are required to include overall height and weight limits in their instructions. Since sitting height is more important to crash protection than overall height, and children's body proportions vary, some manufacturers also include wording like "the top of the head should be at least an inch below the top of the safety seat" for their rear-facing models. We recommend visiting a store with a wide selection, looking at the instructions for various models, placing your child in the display seats, and even asking the manager to let you try installing the display models in your vehicle. This process would ensure that the model fits your child and your vehicle, as well as that you are comfortable using it correctly on every ride.

Why do you recommend booster seats for children up to age 8?

While most families are used to the idea of keeping kids in safety seats until they are around 4 years old, many are not aware that children need safety seats much longer than that. Vehicle safety belts are designed to protect adults and older children, and they must fit correctly to provide that function. Looking at current vehicle designs, child growth patterns/charts, and general lessons learned through observation, many advocates have concluded that vehicle safety belts don't fit until kids are 8, 9, 10 or even 11 years old. As a result of this fact, combined with the fact that boosters are not yet widely used, we see a great number of serious (and fatal) injuries to children. Internal organ and spinal column injuries often result from improper belt use.

How do I know when my child is ready to graduate from a booster seat to a safety belt alone?

Children should ride in boosters until the vehicle safety belts fit correctly. Correct fit means:

The child can sit all the way back against the vehicle seat, with knees bent comfortably over the edge.
The lap belt remains snugly across the bony areas of the lower hips/upper thighs (not the soft abdomen).
The shoulder belt remains snugly positioned across the chest and collarbone.

If any of these criteria are not met, it is likely that the child needs a belt-positioning booster seat.

There are no safety belts on my children's school buses! Isn't that unsafe?

Transporting children safely to and from school is an important issue for school systems, parents and caregivers. Most children killed or injured in school bus incidents were either getting on/off of the bus or were outside of the bus. School bus transportation is statistically the safest form of ground transportation. The question of having safety belts on school buses, however, is complex one.

Children on large school buses are protected by a system called "compartmentalization." A combination of high, energy-absorbent seat backs and narrow seat spacing creates a "compartment" for occupants in a crash. It uses the concept of "eggs in a carton," keeping occupants confined and spreading crash forces over a wide area of the body. In addition, the large vehicle size, typical travel times/routes and visibility of large buses adds to that protection.

Small school buses that weigh less than 10,000 pounds must be equipped with lap belts, since smaller buses experience crash forces similar to those experienced by passenger cars. A few states and school districts also require lap belts on larger buses, but recent research has shown that they are not always the best option. In summary, the research shows that:

compartmentalization is as effective as a restraint system, but it has limitations and requires that the children are in their seats correctly.
lap belts on large buses could have helped some of the children who have been in bus crashes, but they could have caused more serious injuries to others. Belt fit and correct use of the systems are additional issues.
lap & shoulder belts work well on school buses, but belt fit, correct use of the belts, design issues and cost must be considered.

One of the critical challenges for transporting school-aged children safely on buses is ensuring that they are protected by the features designed into the buses. Many school systems allow their buses to be overcrowded, reducing the protection for all of their students. All children should be appropriately protected in school transit. Most school-aged children can be protected by current bus features, but kids who need age-, development- and size-appropriate safety seats should also be protected.

Currently, the best way to accommodate children with additional needs is to transport them on small buses that have lap belts.

Why should I be concerned about using second hand seats?

There are several issues surrounding used child safety seats, so in general they are not recommended. Here are a few of the concerns:

The full history of a second-hand safety seat may be unknown. It may have been damaged in a previous crash, weakened by inappropriate use and storage, or otherwise compromised.
All of the original parts, instructions and labels may not be present and in good condition. Parts substituted from other models are inappropriate, as are other user modifications, and can compromise the safety of the device.
The safety seat may be recalled. Missing or damaged labels may make that difficult to assess, and determining whether a recalled part has been repaired or replaced can also be difficult.
The safety seat may be too old. Most manufacturers agree that a safety seat that is more than six years old should not be used. This is primarily due to the facts that performance standards frequently change and devices incorporating new technologies protect children better. In addition, replacement parts and instructions may no longer be available for older safety seats, and manufacturers may no longer be in business.

Back to: Safe Kids