Midwifery
Council
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Idaho Midwifery Council |
Don’t Doubt, Check It Out: Car Seat Safety
While every car seat is crash tested up to 35 miles per hour, those safety
designs become ineffective if it isn’t properly installed and fitted to your
child. With so many different car
and seat models, this can be confusing.
That’s why it’s important to take advantage of a free safety inspection,
held in most communities.
Cathy MacCallum, a health
educator with Community Health Education & Resources (CHER) and certified car
seat inspector, says 90 to 99 percent of car seats she inspects are not properly
installed. “These are not stupid
people,” she hastens to add.
“That’s why you need to go through an inspection.
There are so many points to check.”
An inspector checks
everything—whether your car seat has any recalls or is past its expiration date,
if it is properly installed in your vehicle and properly fitted to your child.
You leave with the car seat safely installed and with peace of mind.
One common mistake, says
MacCallum, are loose car seats.
“You have to crawl in and put a knee on it to apply enough pressure.
A lot of people don’t know how to engage seatbelt locking mechanism.”
A safe
installation takes a lot of strength and you have to pull the seatbelt all the
way out until you hear that click, she says, then you lock the seat into place
and pull really hard to get all the slack out of the seatbelt.
Another common problem is
when the clasp on the harness is low down across the child’s belly, instead of
even with the armpits. In a crash
the child could eject from the seat.
Once she became a car seat
inspector, MacCallum says she thinks about it all the time, because she’s seen
the statistics, seen what a car crash can do and seen so many seats improperly
installed. While parents and
grandparents typically think about the child’s comfort while riding, she’s
focused on ensuring your child is as safe as possible during a car crash.
“It just grips you.
If I can prevent one injury in a lifetime it would be so worth it.”
To find a certified car
seat inspector and free inspection in your area, go to
www.usa.safekids.org and click “Safe
Kids Near You.” In the Spokane area
you can also go to www.cherspokane.org
and click “Parenting, Car Seat Checks.”
How do you know
if your child is seatbelt ready?
When you can answer yes to all of these questions:
Car Seat Safety Guidelines for Growing
Kids
Birth to age two:
Infants and toddlers up to 20 lbs should ride in a rear-facing car seat
in the back seat.
Ages 2-3:
Front-facing car seat with a harness in the back seat is best.
Ages 4-8:
When they outgrow
the harness-style seat, kids under 4’9” and 80 lbs should ride in a front-facing
booster seat in the back seat.
Ages 8-13:
Kids should still
ride in the back seat whenever possible to avoid airbag injuries.
Did you know?
•
You should never allow your child to
ride with the seatbelt behind his back or under his arm.
•
Car seats expire after 6 years because
the plastic breaks down and no longer absorbs the force of a car crash.
•
Seat belts are designed to fit an
adult male who is 5’10” and weighs 165 lbs.
•
About 1.5 million
American children are in motor vehicle crashes annually.
About 400 American kids (between ages 4 and 8) die each year in motor
vehicle crashes and more than 70,000 are injured.
Over 7,000 of these injuries are “incapacitating, according to the
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia study.”
•
Children ages 4 to 8 who
use booster seats are 59% less likely to be injured in a car crash than if they
used a seatbelt alone.
~Northwest Medstar Member News, Issue 1 – 2010