With all the talk about National Child Passenger Safety Week, you may be left with a lot of questions. Hearing from the NHTSA study that 3 out of 4 child safety seats are not used properly, you may be second guessing whether your child is safety secured. The good news is that you can visit one of the car seat inspection centers that I mentioned in a previous blog post. A certified technician will be able to tell you if your seat is installed correctly and offer educational advice on what to do differently.
I came across this helpful article with five tips on securing your child safely.
- Your child should have no more than one inch of movement once the seat belt harness is tightened.
- The seat should be in the upright position.
- Inspect the car seat for it’s expiration date and realize that it will need to be replaced if it’s too old.
- Make sure you use the tether to secure the child safety seat to the car’s seat. This will anchor the car seat from behind in order to minimize forward movement in a car accident which can lead to injury.
- The latch should be in the correct position as well. You should refer to your car’s owner manual to also check for the maximum weight limit.
As a South Carolina personal injury lawyer , I can’t stress enough just how important it is to make sure your child and their car seat are correctly secured. Afterall, it’s the number one thing you can do to protect them from serious injury or death in a car accident.