Install car seats, correctly

Many states require parents to put children under age 5, or under a certain weight or height, to be seated in a federally approved car seat. It appears, though, that many parents do not know how to install them properly.

Safe Kids Worldwide estimates that at least 80 percent of car seats are not installed in the proper manner. But some police officers think the number is much closer to 99 percent.

Parents should take the initiative to have the car seats for their children installed correctly. They depend too much on the police to teach them how to do it. But as cash-strapped communities adjust their budgets and stop funding public education programs, police departments no longer have the resources to offer installation programs.

It’s not as if installing a car seat is so difficult. The major problem with seat installation is simply lack of information. The primary reason for that lack is people simply do not care to read the instructions.

Very often, seats are not tight enough when installed. Other common mistakes are putting backward-facing infant seats at the wrong angle and using the seat-belt restraint incorrectly.

If they are properly installed, safety seats are effective in reducing the risk of infant deaths by 71 percent and 54 percent for toddlers. They will be next to useless, however, when incorrectly installed.

All parents really need to do to install child car seats correctly is to read the owner’s manual of their car and the product manual for the car seat. Police officers say this is so obvious, but many parents just don’t do it. The result is that their children may not be as safe as they think.

According to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in an average year over 36,000 drivers and passengers lose their lives and another 2.9 million are injured. But many injuries and deaths are not the direct result of the collision but because of the projectile effect on passengers, cargo or pets that are not restrained by seat belts or car seats, or cargo restraints.

Many people use improper equipment and unregulated products, many of which become a projectile in a car crash. The car traveling at 55 mph comes to a sudden stop, but unrestrained passengers and things will continue moving at that speed until they strike some or something in front, often with fatal results.

A child that is seated in an incorrectly installed car seat will also become a projectile in case of a crash. The use of correctly installed car seats for children should be given as much importance as seat belts for adults.